In The Name Of God...

India for long has prided in being a country showcasing unity in diversity, frankly as an Indian and as denizen of this country I have never seen any fellow Indian in the colour of cast , religion, region or language. I have been intrigued and many times distressed at news and images flashed across media on divisions along these lines. May it be clashes of religious communities, or on state border disputes or disputes relating to castes. Where are we as a country headed? Where is our famed quality of tolerance and unity in diversity?? Who is to blame for the state of affairs and who is accountable for the trauma, the hatred and the emotional and economic losses that these incidents result in?To say that we as Indians are responsible and accountable for this; is way too motherhood a statement to make. We need to get down to a lot more of introspection and soul searching , the rot has to to stemmed, we need to do something to ensure that we look at ourselves as Indians first and everything else comes only after this, this is key for our survival as a country called Bharat. We have in cooperation with our so called leaders abused and twisted the meaning of democracy and these leaders have in turn used it to further their wealth and power through a old British tactic of divide and Rule. The prompt for this blog was what I have been reading in the newspapers for a few days now ; about the attack on Women in a Mangalore pub by self anointed "Moral" police.These chappies believe that they are the custodians of Hinduism and that they are the selected imposers of Hinduism on the lesser mortals. Sadly it took over 72 hours and a lot of mud-slinging between political parties before the 'Long" arm of law went around to grab the culprits. Here too we have the Secular parties and the " Communal" parties. Frankly there is nothing in this branding, all the parties use religion as a plank to divide and grab votes; some do it covertly (Secular) and some do it overtly. As an individual I would rather be more wary of the "secular " variety as they have more than one face . In the Mangalore incident the secular parties are blaming the ruling party which has been labelled as communal (read BJP) for fostering the moral brigade. Before anybody jumps to conclusions let me assure you that I speak for no political party and empathise with no party.My consternation stems from the fact that the politicians along with the media have really insulted the collective intelligence of the Indian public yet again, if any person with an modicum of intelligence is to believe the media that BJP is responsible for attacks on churches earlier and now the attacks by the moral brigade, think again. Our willy politicians who have collaborated to keep India as a "Developing Nation"even 60 years after independence are NOT stupid to loose a chance to stake their claim to governing at the center, by sponsoring such skirmishes. On the contrary, it benefits our 'secular' netas to sponsor such clashes to ensure negative publicity to the 'communal' netas. The media anyway is spineless and will report keeping their selfish interests in mind. This trend is even more unsettling considering the fact that we have both the polity and the press working towards their selfish ends rather than to the betterment of the nation.This situation calls for concrete action; to keep religion out of politics and ban any party that targets the electorate in the name of religion overtly or covertly. Even the distribution of party tickets on religious, communal and caste lines should qualify for this ban. I have seen for myself that religion in itself is never a barrier to unity among Indians, most people are agnostic to the religius moorings of their friends , neighbours or business associates, the fact that some of my best friends are Christians or Muslims has , enriched the bond that we have and the respect we have for each others religion. Ask any thinking Indian and they will reflect this sentiment, my interaction with many people who where branded as radicals on this subject has reinforced my conviction on religion that, by itself is a soothing medium , which bonds and provides a safe and peaceful vent for differences among men. It is when the greed for power and deceit for gain of the politicians mix with this balm called religion that the explosive mixture called hatred is created; where there is no Indian, only Hindus, Muslims, Christians...where man looses his ability to reason and gets to his root and becomes a savage, where men kill, burn and maim their own kind and further the selfish cause of the perpetrators of this event who like, vultures swoop down on the carcasses for their own survival and gain. This has to stop, logic and reason needs to prevail. If the daily TV footings, of wailing women and children, of smouldering buses and public property, of simmering homes and of people screaming in terror and pain has to stop. If daily wastage of newsprint on covering charges traded by politicians and banal details of findings of committees and commissions are to stop, we need to cover a lot of ground and the best place I believe we can start, is to stop politics....In the name of God.