The statement 1:
United States President Barack Obama’s high profile visit concluded Tuesday with his address at the Siri Fort Auditorium. The President advised the hosts not to indulge in controversies and conflicts in the name of religion if they were to develop India into a superpower in future.
Addressing a gathering of students and other invitees at the end of his visit the US President said, “India will succeed as long as it is not splintered along religious lines, or other lines." He also invoked the Article 25 of the Indian Constitution to drive his point home more forcefully. Article 25 guarantees religious freedom in India.
Every person has the right to practice and profess his faith according to his choice without fear or discrimination, Obama said confessing at the same time how he was “treated differently” in his own country because of his color.
The President lamented the practice of using religion to tap the dark side of man. He cautioned the Indians not to get divided over religion lest they want their country to scale new heights of development.
What is the background?
The Christian Propaganda
· The US President is clearly under the superficial anti-India propaganda by a powerful network of the Christian lobby alleging that minorities face ‘existential challenges’.
· Obama has shown himself to be more a Christian figure than statesman. Fact is that the missionary lobby fears an anti-conversion law that will prevent them from ‘harvesting’ Hindus as part of their demographic project. There were expectations during the Pope’s visit to India that he would advise evangelists to stop conversions. Far from it, he claimed conversion to be a right. Indian missionaries are perturbed by rising demands for a Central law against conversion. Obama’s statement is a part of the Vatican’s agenda in India.
Clear Pattern
· Attack on churches should be condemned and wrong doers punished but the pattern in attack and disproportionate propaganda are to be diagnosed.
· During Vajpayee’s NDA government, a similar propaganda was unleashed by vested interests. There were incidents of a few churches being damaged; incidents of rapes on nuns were cited to claim that a Sangh-influenced government had been “encouraging fringe elements”. The St. Anne’s Church in Gulbarga was attacked on June 8, 2000 along with another, St. Peter Paul Church, in Bengaluru, and literature threatening Christians was distributed. But investigation unravelled the real culprits and intentions. It was the handiwork of Deendar Anjuman, an outfit backed by Pakistan’s ISI.
· Another incident was the rape of four nuns in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, in 1999. Investigation revealed the 12 rapists to be Christians. More intriguing was an incident in 2009 when church property was destroyed in Mangaluru on March 16, sparking off media discourse on “anti-Christian activities of Hindu outfits”. But post-arrest investigation revealed all seven accused to be Christians, who confessed that the intention of their crime was to defame the majority community and create social divide. Such incidents are an eye-opener.
Europe’s changing approach to secularism
· The US and Europe’s approach to terrorism has morphed into anti-Islamic rhetoric, with most European countries officially declaring a departure from multi-culturalism.
· For instance, Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini termed the burqa a ‘mobile prison’. Switzerland has banned the construction of minarets. France too, has banned the hijab
What is the real motive?
· Obama is just pushing the Vatican agenda which wants to pressurize the Modi government and stall an anti-conversion law. Anyone who uses it for domestic politics is guilty of encouraging neo-imperialists to intervene in our domestic affairs.
· Latest government statistics reveals that over Rs 1000 crore has been channeled from US to Christian organizations that are more proactive than the Wahabis.
· Christian White population is shrinking and church needs more converts
· Advice to India. Aid to Pakistan – Obama announced six fold increase in America’s aid to Pakistan. – USD 263 Mn for 2016. He added another USD 334 Mn for economic aid and USD 143 Mn for “counter-terrorism” whatever that means. This is at a time when organizations and individuals in America have declared that terrorists are roaming freely in Pakistan.
Origin of conflicts.
· The history of religious conflicts begins only with the advent of Christianity and Islam not only in India but wherever these religions went they destroyed the original culture and converted the people to their fold. They believed that theirs was the only true path of salvation and therefore bringing the entire human race under their umbrella became their sole objective.
· The start of polarization in India – Portuguese inquisition of Goa – 1561. Hindus were tortured and burnt at the stake.
· Today also these conversion activities are going on in India unabated mostly by the innumerable Christian Church organizations. Most of these organizations receive funds for carrying out these conversions from their American and other western sympathizers. Will Barack Obama show the same courage to tame these sympathizers and put an end to the religious conflicts in India as he asked us Indians to shun religious conflicts?
Wrong Interpretation of Secularism:
· The conflict that is seen today is mainly the result of the wrong interpretation of secularism by the Congress and its various hues, the Communists and the Media. In their dictionary secular became ‘anti-Hindu’ and ‘Hindu’ became communal. This is the root cause of religious conflicts in India.
· Another equally important factor that caused religious tensions was wrong translation of ‘Dharma’ as religion. In India, Dharma referred to duties of the citizens towards their parents, fellow-citizens, society, country etc. The term never referred to way of worship. Dharma is the set of values and ethos that held the society together since eons and these values are time-pervading, eternal in character and unchangeable.
· The leaders of independent India failed miserably to remind the converted Indians their relationship with Hindu Dharma, traditions and culture.
· The Congress leaders in their pursuit of vote bank politics, made these religious groups forget their rich culture and traditions. On the other hand they criminally neglected the national Hindu character of this country and its people to the extent of an insult. They also reduced the all-encompassing, all-inclusive ‘Hindu’ to a mere faith like Christianity and Islam. This was the conspiracy to undermine the Hinduness of the people of this land
· The RSS, VHP and other Hindu organizations are only trying to rekindle the flame of this Hinduness so that the people professing different faiths can realise their common past and stand as ‘One Country-One People-One Culture’.
The second comment by Obama
Acts of intolerance in India that would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was shell shocked by Partition carnage.
He would have been shocked to know that most religious massacres happened in the rule of the party he built – Congress
India is truly secular. Does not need certificate from anyone
· India is known for her unique unity in diversity. We have as many faiths as per the choice of the people and all of them living in perfect harmony and peace. All the faiths and sects were born in this very land called India. The conflicts in the name of religion started in India with the entry of alien religions like Christianity and Islam.
· The peculiarity of India-born faiths was that all of them not only respected each other but also believed each one as a path that leads to knowledge of the Supreme Reality or Godhead.
· Christianity and Islam did not believe in this plurality and tried to convert people of this land either by force or deceit using all fraud and foul means. History is replete with such examples.
· By character India and Indians are secular. When the Persians came from Iran persecuted by the invading hordes of Islamists, they were given shelter, freedom of worship and religious pursuits by the Hindu King of Gujarat. Today, there are 138000 Persians all over the world with 69000 of them living in India alone.
· When the Christians came to the coast of Kerala, they were given shelter, land, permission to build churches, freedom to profess their religion by the Hindu king and his Hindu subjects. Similarly, when the followers of Islam came to India they were given shelter, allowed freedom of religion and faith by the Hindu king and his Hindu subjects. But both these faiths tried to convert the local Hindu people into their faith by force, fraud and foul means.
Bharat the Guiding Light
· Bharat has been the guiding light to the humanity on religious harmony and togetherness. Long before the advent of Christianity and Islam, the people of this land lived and progressed in unison. The multi-faith character of India holds guarantee to this religious freedom.
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