The godman brought the
world to the banks of the Yamuna and proved
that India is a tolerant country. He
invited even Boutros Boutros Ghali who passed away a month ago and thus showed
that India’s tolerance extends even to the world beyond. The Prime Minister stood beside the godman
and proclaimed that India had much “to offer to the world because of its
cultural diversity.”
When the PM was declaring
his tolerance to the whole world from the banks of the Yamuna, the Milli Gazette published an article by Pushp Sharma with
the headline: “We
don’t recruit Muslims”: says Modi govt’s Ayush Ministry. The journalist had received the information
through an RTI filed by him.
The godman’s
Cultural Fest presided over by the Prime Minister was open to international
diversity. Is the country open to diversity
within it? If not, what was the Cultural
Fest but a mere show, a gigantic exercise in hypocrisy?
Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar was an ardent supporter of Mr Narendra Modi for years. They help each other to further their own
causes. Many years ago, the godman had
exonerated Mr Modi from his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. In a recent blog,
the godman even went to the extent of rewriting the history of the riots by
declaring that “In December, 2001, a few months after Modi became the Chief
Minister of Gujarat, I received a phone call from Mehul, one of our
coordinators in Ahmedabad. He told me that a reliable source had informed him
of a riot being planned to create trouble for the new Modi government.”
Godmen perform
miracles. One of the miracles is the
rewriting of unpleasant histories. Mr
Modi will need that miracle. The Art of
Living too will need Mr Modi for various purposes such as converting the Yamuna
bed and banks to a global convocation.
A few weeks prior
to the Cultural Fest where the PM declared his openness towards all cultures, a
delegation from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) was denied entry in India for the third time. The Modi govt was afraid that the Commission
would find evidences of infringement of minority rights in the country. The
Commission explained that they wanted only to ascertain India's observance of
international standards with respect to religious tolerance to which virtually
all countries have signed up. The Modi govt was not very tolerant of such
international standards.
Less than a month
back, eight American senators and 26 members of the House of Representatives wrote
to Mr Modi expressing "particular concern" over the treatment
of India's Christians, Muslims and Sikhs. They specified certain explicit acts
of intolerance being practised in Modi’s India such as the criminalisation of
non-Hindu practices in Chhattisgarh, “vigilante violence” against Muslims in
various states, and the frustration of the Sikhs in getting their religion an
identity separate from Hinduism.
From the time Mr Modi
became the Prime Minister, there have been umpteen instances of religious intolerance
of all sorts in various parts of the country. Most often, the Prime Minister chose silence
over such matters. Occasionally he broke
that silence (which vice of his predecessor was ridiculed by him copiously with
the rechristening of that person as Maunmohan)
to ask some of the vituperative sadhus and sadhvis not to bring disgrace on the
Party with their substandard vocabulary.
The simple, plain truth is
that the country’s very air is vitiated with communal mistrust and intolerance. So the question naturally arises: what was Mr
Modi trying to prove at the Yamuna Fest?
The PIB issued a Clarification regarding RTI of Shri Pushp Sharma http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=137855
ReplyDeleteOK. The clarification notwithstanding, the fact will be what the journo has written. Unofficial truths.
DeleteI think communal issues were there before Modi came to power also and the World Cultural festival was a 'cultural' festival , not a political masquerade.I think your 'Modi hatred' is making you blind about things that are positive. Modi may not be the best thing that has ever happened to India but definitely is not the worst.
ReplyDeleteMy dear Arjun,
DeleteWho told you that I hate Modi? I think I'm his best friend. If he listens to my suggestion about overcoming his hatred of non-Hindus and sticking to his professed development agenda, he will become one of the best PMs of India. But, you see, he does not listen to me and other good friends of his. Instead he tries to pander to the silly notions of his fans who are really blind.
Please study history a little more perceptively and you will understand that there are hidden agendas behind all historical events such Cultural Fests.