Why what Kerala nuns did to protest their own religious leader should be appreciated
When a religious leader uses a religious event or platform to spew venom of hatred against another religion, it is definite that he is causing more damage to his own religion than the one he is targeting. The onus of first protesting against such acts also lies on his own people to stand up against their religious leaders for spreading hate and communalism.
In one such incident that took place in Kerala recently at a Christian religious congregation in Kottayam, instead of preaching the Biblical messages of peace and harmonious co-existence, a Bishop tried to misuse the platform and sow the seeds of hatred. The Bishop asked the congregation attendees, to not transact any businesses business with people of communities that don’t have anything to do with the Bible and not to eat in hotels run by them.
In most probabilities, such speeches are made by political leaders of the Sangh Parivar under the banner of ‘Hindu Community Festivals’ (Hindu Samajotsav.) Such meetings don’t officially represent any particular sect of spirituality. As this is known by all including participants and those on the stage, nobody takes such meetings seriously as the meetings are organized with some political motive.
But the Bishop at Kuravilangad misused the religious meeting for political gains and insulted the virtues of Christianity. Christian nuns who were on the dais protested this and walked out of the meeting. With this, they conveyed the message to the followers of the Christ that the religious leader’s speech had nothing to do with Christianity. By walking out, they also upheld the values and dignity of the Bible and Jesus. This incident was in continuation of another Bishop’s recent tirade against what he had termed ‘Narcotics Jihad’. But the nuns with their maturity and wisdom have sent out the right message to all concerned.
The Bishop’s statement about ‘Narcotics Jihad’ was condemned by several Christian priests who also stated that the statement was prejudiced. Perhaps, the Bishop made the statement to distract from several allegations of sexual harassment of nuns in the recent past across Kerala, or a few political forces might have made him issue such statements. We need to now recognize that voices of protest has come from within the Christian community in Kerala and consider it as model.
Today, not only our country but the entire world is the victim of drugs menace. It is a problem that has affected the youth of the entire country. Several states including Punjab are fighting against drug menace. There is no need to explain Islam’s stand on narcotics and all other kind of intoxicants. Leaders of all religions are speaking against drugs. The political motive behind the statement that drugs are being used for a specific purpose and by a specific religion is very clear. There is no need to take such statements seriously. But the stand taken by the nuns and a few Christian leaders should become a model for all of us.
Religious forums are meant to teach people good conduct, love, and tolerance. Political forces are always looking for opportunities to misuse such forums. Such elements and forums are found in every religion. Followers of all religions accept the messages given out in religious events at Churches, Mosques, and temples with a lot of passion and emotions. If a person who identifies himself as a religious leader utters wrong words in such a religious forum, it will adversely affect harmony and cohesion in society. And the religion that such leaders represent pays a heavy price for this. Therefore, Muslim leaders should either stop or walk out of a platform where a person who must spread Islam’s messages and principles is misusing the platform to make hate speech against another religion. Staying on, even after hearing to such speeches and hate campaigns, only mean they are endorsing it indirectly. When incidents of political forces trying to misuse religious forums are increasing these days, religious leaders should have the courage to oppose such attempts. The number of religious leaders who can loudly convey that religions exist to preach love and not hate should increase in all religions.
When Hinduism was beset by several superstitions and obscurant practices, leaders such as Swami Vivekananda, Narayana Guru, and Mahatma Gandhi fought against them. But today, in Hindu spiritual forums, the voices of political leaders are being heard more than that of seers and spiritual gurus. Though several Hindu religious leaders are speaking against this, their voice has remained feeble, whereas political leaders are succeeding in using religious events to divide society.
This is harming the Hindu dharma that Vivekananda, Narayana Guru, Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and others have upheld. If leaders who were seen in porn videos use religious platforms to give speeches about culture, then the loss is for the respective religion. Similarly, when the words of senior religious scholars of Islam are heard out loud in the world will the words of extremist organisations like ISIS be silenced. As attempts of political forces to misuse Islam affects Islam the most, it is left to the leaders of that religion to oppose all such political designs. Only when scholars and spiritual leaders in all religions realize this, can all religions exist in an atmosphere of mutual love, trust, and harmony.
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CBI registers another FIR against ED's assistant director over bribery
New Delhi, Dec 30: The CBI has registered one more FIR in connection with alleged bribery scandal involving Enforcement Directorate's assistant director posted in Shimla, who had escaped during a trap operation conducted by the agency there last week, officials said Monday.
The CBI has now registered two FIRs with one pertaining to alleged bribe demand of Rs 85 lakh and another of Rs 80 lakh from the promoters of educational institutes in Himachal Pradesh, they said.
The promoters, who were also the complainant in the case, addressed a press conference in Shimla, alleging that the assistant director used to call them to office, torture them and demanded bribe.
The officer and two of his staff members made us sit in the Shimla ED office for hours during which they would keep demanding money, they alleged.
The CBI has three suspects under scanner in the case with the brother of the accused and a middleman already arrested, while the officer is understood to be on the run and has not joined the investigation so far, they said.
The assistant director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) posted at Shimla and his brother, a senior manager at the Punjab National Bank in Delhi, had allegedly gone to a location near Chandigarh to receive the bribe from an educational institute promoter, who is facing a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.
The case pertains to post-matriculation scholarship scam in Himachal Pradesh.
The owner of the educational institute had filed a complaint with the CBI about alleged extortion, based on which the Chandigarh unit of the agency planned the trap operation, where the complainant was asked to give a bribe of Rs 55 lakh in cash to the officer, with CBI sleuths keeping an eye, the officials said.
The plan was that the CBI would nab the accused after the bribe was received by him, they said.
The ED officer, who is on deputation from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), got alerted during the operation and allegedly fled, the officials said.
The agency has been trying to locate him for seven days.
So far, cash amounting to around Rs 1 crore, including the bribe money, has been allegedly recovered during searches, the officials said.
Sources in the ED said the accused assistant director of its Shimla sub-zonal office and his supervisory officers -- a deputy director and the joint director (based in Chandigarh) -- have been transferred to Delhi following the case.
