Monday, February 13, 2006

Durga on Whiskey Bottle

Another case of blasphemy! This time a London alcohol brand depicts Durga, a Hindu Goddess, carrying bottles of whiskey in her many hands. There were protests by UK Hindus and many other secularists. While it is condemnable, the way the protests were going is remarkable. So far there is no torching of Embassy, no war cry and no boycott of UK products.
But I suspect that RSS and VHP will take this issue seriously and won’t loose time to arrange for a big scale protest. They may even resort to violence and target Christians since the Whiskey manufacturer is probably Christian. The Togadias and Singhals were waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the minorities and recently there was sharp increase in attacks of Christian prayer meetings and missionaries. Specially in Gujarat.
And in the recently held Magh Mela, The leaders of RSS & VHP declared that they will press for a bill against all conversions. According to them, all the Christians in this country are trying to convert the Hindus to Christianity. And they would offer monetary and other benefits for those who re-convert (back to Hinduism) .There was a study conducted in Gujarat stated that the Gujarat government is preparing the field for another genocide. The difference is this time target will be Christians.
The RSS & VHP can well follow the path set by Muslims on the Cartoon protests. There is precedence. Anyway the coming days will unfold what’s in store and as per the indicators it’s not a happy picture.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, personally not being a fan of VHP or Bajrang Dal, but the fact and the reality is that there are many christian missionaries even in Mumbai who do what they are accused of. Right, they offer money to poor people and press them to convert to christianity.

Preaching is freedom of speech and choosing to convert is again a freedom of every individual but some missionaries go beyond thier preaching. I have seen that myself. I wonder why talking about forced preaching is consider non-secular. If VHP and RSS are bad, these missionaries are equally bad. One use violence, other use money.

-- Ishu

Shinu Mathew said...

I agree with you that some of the missionaries indulge in money-for-conversion tactics. But why can't Hindu organizations provide this relief to the poor familes? Christian Missionaries do good charity, even if it is for conversion, and again not always is the case. They build schools and hospitals, they give cloths and shelter so why don't you see this good things?

Anonymous said...

"But why can't Hindu organizations provide this relief to the poor familes? "

So are you justifying that one can go ahead and find poor people and preach to them whatever they want? Now you will say no one is forcing them. I can tell you the case where before giving money/food to these poor people, they are asked to chant "Jesus is great". I have personally witnessed this.

And who told you that there are no hindu organizations providing charity?

I am not against christians and christianity. I grew up in catholic school and my best friends are catholics. But Lets call spade a spade.

-- Ishu