Author: V Sundaram
Publication: News Today
Date: May 26 2006
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06may/2605ss1.htm
Going to a Church does not make you a Christian
any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile W A Billy Sunday.
The great issues are decided either by the
proponents or the opponents, never by the neutralists. The neutralists lose
by default. Better it is to support one side or the other, than to do nothing
and let another decide the issue for you perhaps in a way you disapprove.
Viewed from this point of view, I wish to declare that I am a devout Hindu
and am proud of my Hindu inheritance going back to the dawn of history.
I am shocked to note that on 21 May, when
there was an unprecedented rush at the Badrachalam Temple on account of Hanumath
Jayanthi, some evangelical missionaries entered the temple and pasted evangelical
wall posters making Hindu devotees angry. Some members of an organization
called Vikasa Tarangini immediately reported to the Temple Board Chairman
who in turn filed a police case. According to the law other religious activity
cannot take place within 200 yards (600 ft) from a religious place. But thanks
to the pseudo-secularism of the Congress Party in power in Andhra Pradesh
the Christian missionaries are above the law. They have been emboldened after
their fellow evangelist Dr Y Samuel Rajasekhar Reddy became the Chief Minister
of the state.
To quote the appropriate words of Sandhya
Jain, a front rank journalist and crusader for the cause of Sanathana Dharma:
India's secular State extends undue patronage to the Church; as a result Hindu
patience is beginning to wear thin. The situation has deteriorated with the
rise of the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress in some states. So we have a situation
in which BJP-ruled Rajasthan has to change the name of a colony named after
the Goddess Sati, but Maharashtra sanctions a Christian township!
I see from last year's press cuttings that
former Australia cricket captain, Steve Waugh, wished to set up a 100-400
acre ' Christian township ' in Mumbai. Well known as a rabid evangelist, Waugh
also donated millions of rupees for the conversion of tsunami victims. Chief
Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh also appointed State Industry secretary as nodal
agency for the proposal, possibly in the light of instructions from Catholic
Sonia Gandhi.
In 2005, Dharam Singh, the Congress Chief
Minister of Karnataka, brazenly facilitated Benny Hinn's evangelical blitzkrieg,
which mercifully fell flat, causing embarrassment even to the official church.
In the earlier Congress regime of S M Krishna, Sangliana, a Christian Officer
from North-East openly sided with missionaries when the Ma Bhagavati temple
in Devanahalli (Bangalore Rural) and Sri Durgamba Temple in Banaswadi (Bangalore)
were demolished and churches erected in their place in 2002. In both cases,
the Chief Minister and important Congress leaders supported the evangelicals.
It is hardly surprising to learn, therefore, that as many as 84 Churches have
sprung up in this area in the last two years.
But the man who clinches the first prize as
a great crusader for Christian causes is Y Samuel Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR),
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. A practicing Seventh Day Adventist, Reddy
reportedly had 350 farmhands converted by the Adventists on his own farm,
and is now building a church for them. Reddy is openly pro-missionary and
anti-Hindu. Last year, when it was found that a church was being constructed
on lands belonging to the famous Bhadrachalam Rama Temple, given to a Christian
organization for setting up a school, the Chief Minister prevented restoration
of the land to the temple. So now the church is coming up and conversion activity
is in full swing at an exceedingly sacred Hindu site. What happened on 21May,
is only the culmination of one small episode in the mischievous evangelization
process initiated by YSR last year.
I understand that temple lands are also being
freely distributed in Naxal-infested areas in Andhra Pradesh. YSR has handed
over the distribution of mid-day meals meant for government school students
to Christian bodies and NGOs, who make the children recite ' Yesu nama ' before
giving them the food. This not only tantamounts to forced conversion but also
involves the psychological abuse of minors.
A two day Dharma Sammelan held at Tirupathi
on 3 and 4 March. After the Conclusion of the Programme, when all the Swamijis
made their way for the Darshan of Lord Balaji, to everyone's surprise the
Swamijis were denied entry into the Temple by Thomas Varghese (Executive Officer
of Padmavathi Guest House) who is reported to be a close associate of Dr Y
Samuel Rajshekar Reddy. And finally after a prolonged round of indoor pseudo-secular
consultations, the Swamijis were let inside the sanctum to have the Darshan
of the Lord. In the 2nd week of April, rumours were thick in the air in Tirupathi
to the effect that a vested group of Christian Zealots were operating from
inside State Transport Buses plying in the sacred Hills of Tirumala. The local
BJP leaders in Tirupathi could only lodge a strong protest in front of the
Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam Administrative Building on 11 April .
As a crowning event to commemorate the completion
of two years of anti-Hindu, anti-Sanathana Dhrama, anti-Lord Krishna, anti-Lord
Rama, anti-Lod Shiva and anti-Durga, the UPA Government, A R Antulay, Minister
for Minorities with a great and known moral stature and record of unimpeachable
integrity, has asked the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to conduct
an on the spot assessment of complaints of atrocities on Christians in Madhya
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan all ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP). Laws against conversion are in place in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
In Rajasthan, a bill passed by the assembly in April awaits the governor's
assent. Union Minister A R Antulay told the press recently that his ministry
was concerned about the huge number of complaints from these states and had
therefore decided to send a team for a reality check. Union Minister A R Antulay
is not worried about what has just happened in Badrachalam Temple. Nor is
he worried about the continuous slaughter of Hindu civilians in Jammu and
Kashmir. In both these states Congress is ruling and only Hindus are at the
receiving end. Hindus are non-entities to be dismissed at will. Only the Christians
and Muslims are favoured children and allowed to have their say in all matters
and all situations.
Hindus from 17th century Pundits of Tamilnadu
to Mahatma Gandhi in the 20th century have wasted no end of breath to demolish
the dogma of Christianity. But it has hardly made any difference to the arrogance
of Christian theologians and missionaries. Sita Ram Goel in his path-breaking
work History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304 to 1996) sharply concludes:
This is because the dogma was never meant for discussion. It is an axiom of
logic that that which has not been proved cannot and need not be disproved.
Who has ever proved that the non-descript Jew who was crucified by a Roman
Emperor of Judaea in 33 AD atoned for the sins of mankind for all time to
come? Who has ever proved that those who accept that man as the only saviour
will ascend to a heaven of ever-lasting bliss and those who do not will burn
for ever in the blazing fire of hell ? Nor can the proclamation or the promise
or the threat be disproved. High-sounding theological blah blah notwithstanding,
the fact remains that the dogma is no more than a subterfuge for forging and
wielding an organizational weapon for aggression against other people. Hindus
should pay particular attention to the Christian missionary apparatus planted
in their midst. The sole aim of this apparatus is to ruin Hindu society and
culture and take over the Hindu homeland.
Mahatma Gandhi would be dismissed today by
Sonia Gandhi, Dr Y Samuel Rajasekar Reddy and all other Congressmen as communal
and saffronized because he loved ' Ram 'a as his personal God and he wanted
to create a Rama Rajya. They would be provoked to pseudo-secular anger against
what Mahatma Gandhi wrote while in jail and published in the ' Young India'
of 8 February 1923: Reverend Macarish, elected Head of the Presbyterian Church
Synod which recently met at Orillia in Canada referred to the incidental (I
would say fundamental in the Andhra and Indian context!) commercial advantages
of religious missions in the following words: 'Our cry in the country had
long been markets, wider markets, and since the introduction of the Fordney
Bill, that cry has been louder and more insistent than ever. If the farmers
and manufacturers desire to create a market, they would do well to get in
touch with foreign Christian Missions, and we are assured that it would not
be long till they received their money back with liberal interest. Although
the missionary went to the foreign fields to win or harvest souls for Jesus,
the results of his labours also meant the extension of commerce. Trade would
follow the banner of the Cross, as readily as it would the Union Jack, the
Stars and Stripes, or any of the other national emblems and usually it cost
a good deal less. In the past the missionaries had been the best advertisers
of heathen countries. Dr John G Paton did more to advertise the South Sea
Island than the sandalwood traders ever did, and who ever did more to advertise
Africa than Rev. Livingston?' In more senses than one, Dr Y Samuel Rajasekar
Reddy of Andhra Pradesh is now acting as the chosen spiritual heir of Rev
Livingston today, under the over-arching protective umbrella of Sonia Gandhi's
benediction!!
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com
