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In
fact, my perception is that amongst all our politicians,
apart from BJP, it is only Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who has understood
this reality and is taking care to charter her political
course accordingly. Of course, not that others do not know
this. Unfortunately, they were simply blind to this reality
to the detriment of communal harmony in a pluralistic society
like ours. The tragedy of Hindu India is that though Hindus
are united by their religion (like Muslims and Buddhists)
unlike these Hindus are dangerously divided by the evil
of the age old caste system. Today, both politicians and
other minority religious groups are taking advantage of
this weakest link (caste) in an otherwise a very strong
Hindu chain. And it is because of "caste" BJP, though a
Hindutwa party is not able to beat the so-called "secular"
parties of Mulayam Singh Yadav kind.
The
Pak TV also discussed, in passing, the inherent conflicting
relationship, the antagonism that exists between Hindus
and Muslims. According to one panelist, this negative aspect
was never felt or emphasized during the early Muslim invasion
of India or even during the period of Mughal rule except
during the period of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and later
by the British for their own political reasons. A good historical
perception, I thought. A suggestion that came from one of
the panelists was that Pakistan and India should enter into
a pact similar to the one entered into 50 years ago called
Nehru-Liaqat Pact (Liaqat Ali was Pakistan's PM) to protect
minorities on either side of the border.
There
was a panelist who was rather cynical and sounded fundamentalist
when he said that, after all, Ram was a mythical character.
I guffawed having heard this stuff any number of times.
Any fool, philosopher and wise man can say this in the absence
of any tangible monument or historical proof except of the
great epic Ramayan and other Hindu sacred books. Well, but
then so is the case with much of what is found in the Old
Testament, about Abraham, father of three faiths-Judaism,
Christianity and Islam. It is said, Abraham was summoned
by God, who made explicit his choice of Abraham as the "father
to a multitude of nations".Well sir, when was Abraham
summoned by God? Where did they meet? What is their covenant?
(At least as for Moses, the Old Testament says the God in
the form of burning bush spoke to Moses on Mount Arafat
in Sinai desert)
Certainly
these are all a matter of faith. When
others expect us to respect their faith, why can't Hindus
expect the same from others? We can ask many
questions in this fashion just as Hobbes has asked in his
seminal philosophical work Leviathan. Therefore, let us
all be fair to each other in the name of the same old God
and STOP questioning the faith. And then, if I may stretch
this argument a little further, Is not the very idea of
God a myth? Therefore, there is no point in repeating the
point that Ram of Hindus is mythical ad nauseam. The best
part of the Pak TV panel discussion was in the concluding
words of the anchorwoman, who must be first and foremost
a human being and then whatever else she is in her religion
or profession. She said: "We should look beyond this kind
of horror and trauma. Let us hope that this kind of bloodshed
will never happen again, at least, during our life time."
For a moment, I thought it is better to watch the Pak TV
than Star TV for my political input and wisdom.
K.B.Ganapathy,
Editor,
Star of Mysore, Evening daily,
Mysore.
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