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’?

4 comments:

  1. A very good article, Alwyn. Congratulations!
    As u said, Dr. Acharya has failed in his duties. A better designation for him would have been that of a 'house wife' and not that of a 'home minister.'

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  2. thanks so much Praveen! you r right!

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  3. Dear Alwyn, Thanks for such a wonderful and thought provoking insights. Surely the "physician" needs a "treatment" as early as possible.

    Bala

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