Hate in C Minor

Caption not too far off the mark: John Dayal makes a
menacing gesture towards BJP leader B. P. Singhal

On an NDTV discussion, MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi asked a very pertinent question. He asked what if Haywood was Hamid? Would the Indian Police let him get away so easily? Thank you Mr. Owaisi. These are good questions to ask. After Haywood left, it was discovered that he was in India on a fraudulent visa (he had definitely lied about his purpose of visit).

Interesting things happened on the CNN-IBN show (from which the above screen cap was taken). This was a show on religious issues and true to form, myths flowed freely. They also got mercilessly shattered.

Apparently Minister of State Prakash Jaiswal had claimed that he was not allowed to go to the troubled site. Many newspapers including the Outlook are spreading this canard. Well, it turned out that he did not go to Kandhamal because of bad weather.

John Dayal claimed that "It is very difficult to become a Christian. If you're a Dalit, you lose your job and scholarship." This is less than half the truth. None of the conversions in Kandhamal were done legally, meaning which the collector was not notified. In many instances they still continue to claim these benefits. Also, this applies only for SCs. Secondly, although they may have to forsake benefits under SC quotas, they become eligible for minority institution quotas (St. Stephens)! There are other fringe benefits, check out the AP roster of recent GO orders and legislations. One mustn't forget that there is also the OBC quota to consider. So, Mr. Dayal's attempt at this inane spin miserably falls through.

The show did not go very well for Rajdeep Sardesai. Two persons who shone were BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy and Renuka Narayanan, editor of HT. Readers may recall that Satpathy was the only MP who spoke against the OBC reservation bill. Not only does the man speak well, he cuts through BS like hot knife through butter. No friend of Hindus or BJP, Renuka Narayanan refused to toe the party line. She told off John Dayal in no uncertain terms.

Now let's get back to the two more pertinent issues:

The first is the issue of Christian terrorism and violence. This is a serious issue that must be addressed immediately. Part of the problem is that the community has managed to stay out of radar and as a result has become infested with hardcore communal fundamentalists. Minority status does not automatically grant secular credentials. It is clear that rent seeking behavior has crept into the community. Nefarious activities like the Haywood case are taking place. Now they are openly threatening to form private militia. Wherever there is numerical superiority, such as Kerala etc., they cause distress to others. It is not that they are making much social progress either: in fact it seems like they have boarded a train back to the middle ages. The hushed up sex scandals in Kerala, religious indignation over movies etc. stands testimony to this observation. Most alarmingly, the self-styled seculars of this community have maintained a wall of silence about the problems within the community, while constantly highlighting problems of other religions. In any case, it is like, their problem, so we are not much concerned.

The second issue is of course that of religious conversion and its place in the LDR (Liberal Democratic Republic). If you are confused about the issue, it will only take a few seconds to realize that conversions are immoral by definition from a secular standpoint. You can not claim to respect all religions and then turn around and support conversions, especially the Industrial scale expedient variety that is happening in India. A post by Offstumped though somewhat frivolous in tone, explains this. We would argue that religious solicitation is even worse than sexual harassment.

There is no such thing as voluntary conversion. The exceptions are so few that they are statistical errors or special cases (formation of a new religion or cult, mass scale political conversion etc.). Most conversions are done under duress or inducement. The Swami was killed because he was shattering this myth on a day to day basis for all to see.

As far as its place in the LDR is concerned, we believe any attempt at changing the demographics, especially at this aggressive scale using foreign funds, is downright illegal. Simply because it breaks down the original socio-political contract people agreed to when they joined the LDR. It is downright silly to expect people to not react to it. Who will guarantee that the whole thing will not turn very violent? Certainly historical precedence and current behavior of the community does not inspire any amount of confidence. What is happening now is akin to ethnic cleansing. It is merely a slow form of invasion by foreign forces.

The United Nations does not have anything specific to say about religious conversions. It simply can not when the practice is illegal in most of its client states. So next time John Dayal runs to the UN screaming bloody discrimination, he may want to ponder this a little. In fact India should approach the UN for setting ground rules for conversions. Nations with homogeneous populations are advised to stay off this debate. It is not your goddamn problem.

A final word about the peace protests and rallies:

There is a buzz on the internet that reluctant students were made to march in peace protests and rallies. The reluctant part is unverifiable but quite plausible. Very few parents regardless of religion will let their precious little snowflakes go anywhere near political rallies. This is outrageous and utterly despicable. Using children for propaganda or warfare is nothing new, The Palestinians do it all the time. At least they use their own children.