A reader from Tamilnadu relives the agony of the Shankaracharya arrest
Initial Shock and Inertia
I woke up after a pleasant Diwali
night (with its usual round of light & sound shows all around in the
neighbourhood) and switched on All India Radio for the morning news. Why
AIR and not NDTV 24x7, you ask? Yes. It’s more accessible sometimes for
simple folk like me living in a remote corner of Tamil Nadu. The newsreader
announced as nonchalantly as she could that the Shankaracharya of Kanchi
Kamakoti Peetham had been arrested in connection with the murder of sankararaman,
said to be a former employee of the Math.
It took me several minutes to understand what that meant. But once the message sank in, I knew not what peace and quiet meant for many weeks after. I began calling friends to confirm this incredible news and I was greeted with even more disbelief from the other side. I became an early bird spreading ominous news. As hours passed, it was my turn to start receiving calls from shocked colleagues and friends.
Adding Insult to Injury
While millions of Hindus like me
were trying to come to terms with what was happening, the newspapers and
IV channels started sending out insensitive messages which made the whole
affair extremely bitter and painful. The public prosecutor calling the
Shankaracharya an “undeserving criminal” even before the investigation
started, the DMK gleefully rejoicing in the ante in front of video cameras,
lawyers and judges making fun of the acharya for referring to the rahukalam,
photographs of policemen violating the personal space of the acharya, the
court pune calling the acharya disrespectfully by his purvashramaname “Subramani,”
loudmouthed Jayalalitha declaring in the assembly that she had “shocking
and solid” evidence against him (Madam, where is the evidence?)...
DMK head Karunanidhi was shown mocking at the Shankaracharya: “If we commit a sin, we will go the Ganga but if Ganga herself commits a sin, where shall ordinary people like us go?” It was news to me that the leader of the curious species called Dravidian rationalists in Tamilnadu not only knew about the Ganga and its cleansing power but also believed in it!
Devotees and those who were aware of the acharya’s magnanimous service projects, his noble stature and his tireless efforts to reach out to the depressed classes, were recoiling in horror while other gullible Hindus who had swallowed the media propaganda were losing faith in their tradition and in their acharyas.
Media Portrayals of Mother Teresa
and Shankaracharya: A study in contrast
A competitive study of media portrayals
of Mother Teresa and the Shankaracharya will reveal the perverted mindset
that is celebrated in the name of secularism in India. Over the years,
many have questioned the secrecy shrouding the huge amount of wealth amassed
by Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity from tainted individuals
& institutions and through other dubious means.
For instance, it is well known that Mother Teresa had accepted over a million dollars from an American criminal called Charles Keating who was convicted for swindling money from thousands of poor Americans through a savings & finance company. Mother Teresa wrote a letter to the American judge Ito, requesting him to “pardon” Keating as he had donated money for “God’s work.” An American district attorney replied to Mother Teresa demanding that the tainted money she accepted from him should be returned to their rightful owners. Needless to say, Mother Teresa never returned the money.
There are many such instances of gross violation of ethical and humanitarian norms in Mother Teresa’s life. Read for instance Christopher Hitchen’s famous book The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice or the recently published comprehensive critical study by Aroup Chatterjee Mother Teresa. The Final Verdict One is horrified to see the discrepancy between the magnitude of wealth owned by the Missionaries of Charity and the poor quality of services being rendered by them and their conspicuous absence during severe crises where such help is needed like the Orissa cyclone or the Gujarat earthquake or in the Tsunami affected areas in Tamilnadu.
However, the Indian media can never even dream of exposing her and the murky financial aspects of her institution nor will it allow a negative word about her to be published even in their letter’s columns. In fact, Mother Teresa’s image is even better than the image that Jesus the Christ himself carries in many Western countries!
Such is the impeccable image that media-power has built for this international fraud who is known today as a Nobel Peace Laureate, Bharata Ratna and apostle of the destitute and suffering millions in India.
Shrill Propaganda and Muted Protests
The silence from the Hindu side
during the first week after the arrest was deafening. Except for a few
(and cautious) voices of dissent in some newspapers, there was no significant
stirring of the Hindu conscience which could have been called as a ‘protest.’
The BJP which is desperately searching for another Hindutva wave to ride
on for grabbing power, started with a feeble protest meeting in Delhi.
And this deafening Hindu silence was matched only by the boisterous and unfriendly propaganda that was being bombarded through the 24x7 news channels. Even magazines catering to the elite Brahmin community in Tamilnadu, which were all praise for the acharya fill recently, suddenly began publishing astonishing reports, showing the acharya in poor light, thus forcing people to internalise the (unproved) accusations laid against him. I understood the impact of this propaganda when a Brahmin friend of mine dethroned and threw away a framed photographed of the acharya which he used to worship in his house!
Dharma vs. Secular Indian State
India today lives in a “made-in-media”
virtual reality manufactured by the ultra-secular elite whose value systems
and frame of reference today are greatly in variance with India’s civilisational
ethos. But Hindu society is slow to rise in protest. Activism for any Hindu
cause is anathema to the middle classes.
Consider this: when Sri Jayendra Saraswati visited Coimbatore city years ago, a huge crowd of around 25,000 people, mostly from the elite and the Brahmin community, gathered to seek his blessings. But only 10 persons, mostly ladies, turned up for the protest meetings and hunger strikes that were held in the week following the arrest. Many of them privately express their seething rage against the motivated cases foisted on the acharyas but none will dare to be counted in the protest camps. The fear of Jayalalitha’s vengeance hangs in the air like Hider’s persecution of the Jews.
Jayalalitha’s blitzkrieg against
the Sankara Math and the revered acharyas is an urgent wake up call to
all followers of the Dharma to fight back the tyranny of the secular Indian
State.