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?

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?