To tell anyone that he has
many fathers is quite an abuse and an abominable aspersion cast on the
virtuousness of his mother. But our Minister
of State for Food Processing Industries, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, certainly did
not mean anything of the sort when she declared that everyone including Muslims
and Christians are sons of Ram.
“Which Ram?” asked my
cousin when he heard it.
“Of course not our vegetable
vendor,” I said and asked him whether he was a fool not to understand which Ram
could afford to have so many sons.
“Oh,” he said
dismissively. “That Ram.”
He explained to me that he
had no problem in considering the Sadhvi’s Ram as his father if she had no
problem in taking the colourless and formless Allah or the grey-haired,
misty-eyed Christian God as her father. “It
has to be a give and take, isn’t it?
After all, we live a liberal economy.”
“Why not start with some indigenous
options?” I asked. “Like Krishna and
Shiva and any of the other thousands of Indian fathers before importing fathers
from abroad?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Charity should always begin at home. When we have so many around here open for
adoption, why should she stick to Ram alone?”
“Pluralism of paternity,
quite a novel concept,” I was amused. We
import and export all sorts of things across various borders. We travel, mingle with all kinds of people,
work with them, marry them, have children of all possible racial / religious /
linguistic / cultural permutations and combinations... But why do our leaders
insist on keeping the paternal outpourings of our gods within the confines of
our national borders?
Probably she was referring to Ramarajya, Gandhi's dream. Why stint our understanding to communal-ism? :P
ReplyDeleteShe was referring to nothing in all probability. See, the man who said that the critics of Modi should go to Pakistan became a Union minister a few months after the speech. The man who organised encounter killings for Modi became the party chief. The sadhvi must be having her eye on some plum post.
DeleteMay she just meant to say that God is one!
ReplyDeleteThen her later apology would have been out of place. The kind of statements made by her are becoming too common to ignore.
DeleteOkay. Sons of Bharat Matha!?
ReplyDeleteNo, M. It isn't about sons at all.
DeleteYes, sir. I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteYeah! I got it now. As far as religion is concerned no religious sect adopts another. All followers of religion are clerics. They want to spread their own everywhere only because of this reason. We can't point at a Sadvi alone. Religion is equivalent to fanaticism. May it be the followers of Allah or Christ or Krishna. Pakistan was created basically for that reason alone, other than the greed of two men wanting to become the first PMs of the free nation.
ReplyDelete