Wake up ye Hindus

By abhay mokashi

Hindus are in deep slumber for a long time and it is time they wake up, given the damage being caused to the religion and its followers, by some vested interests, who are spreading hatred in the society in the name of Hinduism.

There is a sudden eruption in hate speeches by saffron clad men and women, in the name of Hinduism. These men and women in saffron have been spreading hatred against Muslims and Christians; and some of them have either appealed to Hindus to take up arms to protect their religion or have made them take an oath to take up arms in to fight Muslims. It would be wrong to address them as ‘sadhu’, ‘sadhvi’, ‘mahant’, ‘baba’ or ‘ma’.  They are rogues, scoundrels and mischief-mongers.

In the recent past, there have been attacks on places of worship of Muslims and Christians, by members of organisations working in the name of Hindus and Hinduism. Muslims and Christians have been prevented from saying their prayers. At various Hindu religious congregations hate speeches have been made and in one such meeting Mahatma Gandhi was abused and his killer Nathuram Godse was glorified. Godse’s act was justified, the way it has been justified by these Hindu fanatics, time and again. On January 30, this year, Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, Godse’s act of firing three shots on the Mahatma, was enacted with a saffron clad woman firing three shots form a fake weapon on a life-size image of the Father of the Nation. On firing the shots, red liquid oozed out of the image, to depict his blood.

People may have some differences with Mahatma Gandhi, his life and his philosophy, but that does not justify Godse’s dastardly act. A true Hindu and a worshiper of Lord Ram cannot ever support the killing of Mahatma Gandhi by Godse.

This is not what Hinduism has taught us. It is not a religion of hatred, in fact, no religion teaches hatred.  It is sad that those masquerading as Hindus and leaders of the religion are spreading hatred against other religions. Such scoundrels flourish because they have the tacit backing of those in power and the silence of the true followers of the religion. It is creditable that at least one sadhu walked out of a congregation protesting the use of language against Mahatma Gandhi.

Ideology has to be fought ideologically, if that was not the case, some of the leaders these fanatics follow, would have had to say ‘Hey Ram’ like Mahatma Gandhi’s last words.

Some of the speakers at such congregations said that Hindus have to take up arms, that too AK47s, instead of swords, to fight the Muslim jehadis. Those killing in the name of Islam have to be condemned too, but it is the duty of the government to take appropriate legal action against such individuals and organisations. Citizens do not have the right to take the law in their hands and punish anybody. Such acts cannot be justified, yet these individuals who speak of fighting for justice are silent over the atrocities on the ordinary people, rapes and the sufferings of the people at large.

The Bharatiya Janata Party brought in religion in politics and now there is a competition among the political parties to use religion in politics, in order to garnish votes in the name of religion.

The BJP has realised that the easiest way to power is the use of religion, rather than spending energy on developmental issues and issues that affect the common people in the country. BJP, hates Communism and Marxism, but has skilfully followed Karl Marx’s statement that religion is the opium of the people. The BJP has successfully kept a huge section of the population intoxicated with religion, making that section forget inflation, unemployment, lack of medical facilities and the like.

The Adityanath government had issued a directive that students should be made to come to the colleges on December 25, for a government function and college administrations were asked to send videos to show the presence of students in college that day. By calling the students to their colleges on Christmas, Adityanath showed that he is a spoilsport. That also reflects his Hindu fanatism.

The silence of the BJP on the hate speeches and the glorification of Godse, exhibits its tacit support to such acts, as they work in favour of its electoral dreams.

If people do not stand up against the exploitation of their religion, we would be heading for a disaster as a nation. The time has come for Hindus to wake up from their slumber and stop the wrongdoings in the name of their religion.