Saturday, January 30, 2010

An Open Letter to the Home Minister of Karnataka, Mr Acharya

In the wake of frequent attacks on churches in Karnataka the home minister has come out with a master plan. He has suggested that the managements of religious institutions make their own security arrangements. In this open letter to the home minister I wish to mention how and why he has got it wrong.

Dear Home Minister, Mr Acharya,
I hope that you don’t need to be reminded of the fact that you are not the first home minister of this State. Many have preceded you and many will succeed you. But you would go down in history as the first home minister of Karnataka to make such an irresponsible and insensitive statement. My question is ‘what would have been your reaction if there were repeated attacks on Hindu temples?’ I don’t intend to say that temples should have been attacked or desecrated. But my point is whether your reaction would have been the same if there were repeated attacks on temples? I am highly inclined to think, therefore, that probably your RSS links have blinded you to such a degree that you are no longer capable of making responsible statements!
Perhaps you will remember that there have been many attacks on churches already. But sadly and strangely you have been consistently downplaying such attacks and declaring them as nothing more than robbery cases. But why would a robber break those religious idols/statues into pieces if his/her sole intention was theft?
It is good to know that you are aware of the number of police personnel in the state and the number of religious institutions. As you sayThere are 1.25 crore houses, 43,000 temples, 3,000 mosques and churches in the State. The State has only 90,000 police personnel and it is difficult to provide security to all places of worship’. But more importantly are you aware of the number of attacks on churches ever since you became the home minister of this State? Are you aware that there haven’t been any arrests of those involved in these attacks?
I would like to bring to your kind attention, in case you are not aware of this, that some sangh parivar groups like Bajrangdal, Sri Ram Sene etc have attributed these attacks to activities like conversion and attacks on Indians in Australia. In Batkal, for example, some members of Sri Ram Sene had even threatened to attack all the churches if violence against Indians was not stopped in Australia (Varthabharati, January 21, 2010 pg 3). So your argument that these attacks are only instances of robbery carries no weight.
One of the major achievements of the BJP government in Karnataka has been the budgetary support to religious mutts. With that support, mutts are definitely in a better position to provide adequate security arrangements for their religious structures. Why are mosques and churches deprived of such support? Isn’t it only fair to extend such budgetary support to mosques and churches to help them in their security arrangements? With that support, I am sure, they would be happy to accept your suggestion.
It appears that you are not very serious about your job as home minister. As you are a doctor by profession, the State would indeed be better off if you are relieved from your present responsibility to allow you to carry on with your practice as a physician. In fact some say that you did a lot of good as a physician.
Therefore, in the greater interest of the State, Mr Acharya, shouldn’t you quit as home minister and listen to those who say ‘physician heal thyself’?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Church attacks in Karnataka- Oh CM and HM when will you stop it?

On the eve of India’s 61st Republic Day, as the Nation was preparing to celebrate the 60 years of its Constitution, some goons in Karnataka engage in ‘celebrating’ this event by vandalizing two churches. Though a shame and disgrace to the nation’s constitution, such attacks/vandalism have become a regular feature, ever since the BJP has come to power in Karnataka. It’s a great mystery that on the one hand we have ever increasing attacks on churches and on the other we don’t have a single instance of any arrests relating to these attacks! No doubt our chief minister and home minister deserve special mention for promising that the guilty will be punished! At least they have been gracious in making those ‘promises’. One must really admire their great capacity to make such promises in abundance!
Though there have been promises by CM (Chief Minister) and HM (Home Minister) of arresting the culprits, strangely there have also been attempts to downplay these attacks. The cops consider it robbery and Chief Minister thinks some outsiders are behind these attacks. But A. K Subbaiah, former MLC, has termed these attacks as sponsored offence.
This is really scary- rising attacks, absence of any arrests and empty (but unlimited) promises by the leaders!  Add to this the recent appointment of Mr Eashwarappa, allegedly a hardcore RSS man, as the state BJP chief. Well, it can’t get worse as some think!
Yet another development in the state has been the rise in Hindutva conventions (though they are called Hindu conventions actually they are Hindutva conventions). What is the real purpose behind these conventions? To further polarize the people along religious lines or to promote peaceful coexistence? Unfortunately the focus seems to be the former with many speakers at these conventions making inflammatory speeches.
So the important question is whether the CM and HM are really serious about establishing peace, religious harmony and unity in this state? If yes, they should immediately arrest the persons responsible for church attacks and those who vitiate the peaceful atmosphere by making inflammatory/derogatory speeches.
On Republic Day, though the Governor has sought stringent action against the people responsible for church attacks will the CM and HM act responsibly and soon?

Friday, January 8, 2010

New Year Wish-list!

The year 2009 was pretty bad on many counts. The list of things that we would like to forget is definitely large, if not endless! But the question is ‘have we learnt any lessons from our mistakes?’ Joseph Stiglitz says that ‘the best that can be said for 2009 is that it could have been worse’! But he thinks that the world has learnt some important lessons. Well, is it optimism at its best? After all, economists are fond of assumptions!
Coming to India, the country has had many highs n lows in the year 2009. Among the lows, most distressing is the report of increase in poverty levels. According to the Tendulkar committee report, which was established to make a realistic assessment of poverty after the government faced criticism about its official estimates, poverty levels are 37.2 % which is much more than the official figures of 27.5 %. (some articles relating to this report are here and here.) We must not forget that even this report is faulty and therefore, the actual poverty rates would be much beyond 50 %.
Coming to Karnataka, I wonder if there are any great achievements to boast about. A peaceful state till recent times has sadly witnessed a steady growth in communal riots ever since BJP government has come to power. The recent data suggests that Karnataka has the dubious distinction of topping the list of communal clashes in South India. It has even overtaken Gujarat at the national level. No doubt a distressing trend. 
So, would 2010 go down in history as a year of great achievements- demonstrated by decrease in both poverty levels and communal riots?