Kannada scholar Dr MM Kalburgi, was
shot to death at his home
The daylight killing of Karnataka
scholar MM Kalburgi in Dharwar is an act that deserves condemnation from civil
society. Surprisingly most of those leading the charge against the evil deed
represent ideologies and organisations, which usually endorse violence in the
name of social justice and demand leniency for those who are convicted of
heinous crimes such as murders and bomb explosions.
Murder
One cannot recall even one of them
raising his/her voice when octogenarian Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati's frail
body was riddled with bullets on August 23, 2008, in the deep forests of
Kandhamal district of Odisha. His murderers broke open the door of the toilet
and killed him.
What was Swamiji's fault? He had
spent a life time serving poor tribals in the remote forests of the backward
state; helping them save their ancestral faith and identity from those who
believe in buying of souls in exchange for a loaf of bread, or use them as
fodder in their war against the state of India on behalf of their foreign
masters (read China).
On September 30, 2013, nearly five
years after the dastardly assassination of the 82-year-old Swami, seven persons
— all Christians, were convicted for the hate crime. The Swami and the string
of institutions he used to run, were major irritants to both — Maoists and the
church which are active in the area and pushing their respective agendas.
Meanwhile a prominent multi-edition South-based English daily on Friday morning
carried an edit page article by a top CPM leader in which she has termed the
judgment in the Swamiji's murder case as “atrocious”.
Defending those convicted, she says,
their “crime is that they are Adivasi, they are Dalit, they are poor and they
are Christian.” See the contradiction — while hell is being raised over
Kalburgi’s murder, a campaign is on to secure the release of those found guilty
of killing the Swami and four of his devotees. Kalburgi's murder was surely an
un-Hindu act and those who committed it deserve no sympathy. But can there be double
standards? Should the faith of the victim and perpetrator of the crime, colour
the response of civil society to such sordid crimes ?
Reaction
Do we remember what was the first
reaction of the ‘'secularists’ when 59 kar sevaks returning from a pilgrimage
from Ayodhya were roasted alive by a mob fired by religious zeal at Godhra on
the fateful morning of 27th February, 2002? They sought to blame the victims
for their fiery end.
One multi-edition English daily
(claiming maximum circulation and readership in the national capital region )
carried an editorial the following day which said that the kar sevaks had
brought on themselves the horrible fate by taking a highly ‘provocative’ action
of visiting Ayodhya and raising slogans hailing Lord Rama ! After UPA was voted
to power in May 2004, within four months (September 2004) its Railway Minister
Lalu Prasad Yadav appointed an inquiry into the Godhra episode headed by
Justice Umesh Chandra Banerjee. In tune with the ‘secular’ line, the Banerjee
committee held that it was an “accidental fire” —implicitly absolving all the
criminals of their heinous dead.
Later the Gujarat High Court termed
the formation of this committee as ‘unconstitutional, illegal and null and
void’. The High Court further said that its formation to be a ‘colourable
exercise of power with the malafide intentions’.
Generally intellectuals and
activists guilty of such double standards belong to the leftists pack laying
exclusive claim to ‘secularism.’ Is it not ironical that the leftists of various
hues arrogate themselves the leadership of secular and democratic values while
their record on these counts is black? During the fateful years preceding
Independence in 1947, the communists actively worked with M. A. Jinnah and the
British for the creation of Pakistan — a country whose foundation were wedded
to theocracy and has emerged as a petri dish of terror in the region. Coming
back to Kalburgi's murder case, one should not hazard a guess either about the
identity of the murderers or their motives till the police investigations
conclude. However, killing someone for his/her views ,is alien to Indian
traditions and philosophy.
Belief
The New Encyclopedia Britannica
says, ‘In principle, Hinduism incorporates all forms of belief and worship without
necessitating the selection or elimination of any. It is axiomatic that no
religious idea in India ever dies or is superseded — it is merely combined with
the new ideas that arise in response to it. Hindus are inclined to revere the
divine in every manifestation, whatever it may be, and are doctrinally
tolerant, allowing others — including both Hindus and non-Hindus — whatever
beliefs suit them best.’
Where is the scope for any violence
in such a pluralistic tradition? Distortions in the system crept in following
the arrival of Islam (Muhamad Bin Qasim in early eight century) and Christian
clergy led by Saint Francis Xavier (in 1542) as invaders. The entry of foreign
inspired communist ideology, with its concepts of “class enemies and wars”, in
the 1920s further added to this creed of intolerance and bigotry.
In the last century, history was
stained in blood by the Stalinist excesses in the name of exclusive claims to
Marxist- Leninist ideological purity in Russia and eastern Europe on the one
hand and Nazifacist atrocities on the Jews in Germany on the other. History may
repeat itself first as a tragedy and then as a farce. But the lesson of
self-proclaimed revolutions whether in the name of the dictatorship of the
proletariat or of the monopolists of purity in the name of religion, is the
same: unity through diversity of thought and respect for it is the best bet to
real and sustained democracy in action. The writer is a commentator on
political and social issues.
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