Reports say, after Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), now Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) has expressed its displeasure on the Government of
India decision to send a high party delegation to the Vatican City to
participate in Mother Teresa's Canonization Mass on September 4 when she will
be declared a saint formally.
Going by the past rhetoric of these organizations, it is not
unexpected. What was pleasant was how Narendra Modi summed up the emotion of
the masses on the issue during his monthly radio address to the nation,
"Mann Ki Baat" on August 28.
He rightly described how a person of Albanian origin, with
no knowledge of English, adopted India and made its destitute people mission of
her life. When he said that a high level delegation led by the External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj would represent India in Vatican, it was an expression
of the wishes of the majority of Indians, unlike those few who still see
"good and bad" defined by the demarcation of the religious lines.
Like VHP's Surendra Jain rushed to criticize Narendra Modi
on his knowledge of history and how a "Mother Teresa sainthood" would
hasten proselytization. Even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has concluded that though
Mother Teresa's work was good, it was not selfless. While delivering a lectures
last year, in February 2015, Bhagwat linked Mother Teresa's work with
conversion, saying it was her primary motive. Bhagwat's remarks had come at a
time when Narendra Modi was busy in initiatives to heal and win back
Christians' confidence after a series of church attacks that later proved
non-religious in nature.
Here are two things that we should go by.
Mother Teresa's work was termed selfish when she devoted her
whole life in the service of the poorest of the poor. When she left the world,
she left an institution to serve the people. She didn't keep anything for her,
living a simple and austere life. When her work is called selfish, it really
pains us, who see a motherly figure in her. Shouldn't we stop seeing the extent
of the kindness of greats from a religious eye?
Conversion? Why its fear is still instilled in us? Why our
opinion leaders and politicians still try such loaded words?
How can 13.8 crore Muslims and 2.4 crore Christians be a
threat to convert 82.7 crore Hindus to their fold?
There is famous saying in Hinduism - and I believe it should
be there in almost every religion, if religions evolve to organize and better
human lives - that you cannot think of worshipping God when you are hungry and
the survival crisis is the sole question haunting you. That is the story of majority
of Indians. The first duty of our opinion leaders and politicians should be to
feed them first, to lift their lives out of survival hell.
Where our systems failed, people like Mother Teresa filled
the gap. And yet it was not enough. India has more than 3 million registered
non-governmental organizations. "The government, with restrain on
resources, alone cannot reach to all in a country like India with widespread
poverty and illiteracy" was the basic idea that allowed such a large
number of NGOs in the country - so that they can go to the spaces where the
government cannot.
The second thing that again reinforces the feeling that
whenever there is a crisis on religious/community lines in the society, it is
fuelled by motivated interests, is that none of incidents of church attacks
last year were found religiously motivated. There was a great hue and cry and
the whole political lot as well as evangelical institutions, from India and
abroad, were propagating something like Christianity was in some imminent
danger in India, especially after a Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) led government
was the incharge of affairs in India whose ideological mentor RSS has always
been suspicious of the motives of the Christian missionaries working in India,
something that even reflected in the Mohan Bhagwat statement mentioned above.
But nothing happened. India as secure for Hindus, as for
Muslims, Christians and other faiths.
To continue..
©SantoshChaubey
