| A haven for State-abetted Evangelism on stilts | |||
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By: V Sundaram, IAS, Retd. June 11, 2006 Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
FeedbackGoing to a Church does not make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile W A Billy Sunday. The great issues are decided either by the proponents or the opponents, never by the neutralists. The neutralists lose by default. Better it is to support one side or the other, than to do nothing and let another decide the issue for you perhaps in a way you disapprove. Viewed from this point of view, I wish to declare that I am a devout Hindu and am proud of my Hindu inheritance going back to the dawn of history. I am shocked to note that on 21 May, when there was an unprecedented rush at the Badrachalam Temple on account of Hanumath Jayanthi, some evangelical missionaries entered the temple and pasted evangelical wall posters making Hindu devotees angry. Some members of an organization called Vikasa Tarangini immediately reported to the Temple Board Chairman who in turn filed a police case. According to the law other religious activity cannot take place within 200 yards (600 ft) from a religious place. But thanks to the pseudo-secularism of the Congress Party in power in Andhra Pradesh the Christian missionaries are above the law. They have been emboldened after their fellow evangelist Dr Y Samuel Rajasekhar Reddy became the Chief Minister of the state. To quote the appropriate words of Sandhya Jain, a front rank journalist and crusader for the cause of Sanathana Dharma: India"s secular State extends undue patronage to the Church; as a result Hindu patience is beginning to wear thin. The situation has deteriorated with the rise of the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress in some states. So we have a situation in which BJP-ruled Rajasthan has to change the name of a colony named after the Goddess Sati, but Maharashtra sanctions a Christian township! I see from last year's press cuttings that former Australia cricket captain, Steve Waugh, wished to set up a 100-400 acre " Christian township " in Mumbai. Well known as a rabid evangelist, Waugh also donated millions of rupees for the conversion of tsunami victims. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh also appointed State Industry secretary as nodal agency for the proposal, possibly in the light of instructions from Catholic Sonia Gandhi. In 2005, Dharam Singh, the Congress Chief Minister of Karnataka, brazenly facilitated Benny Hinn's evangelical blitzkrieg, which mercifully fell flat, causing embarrassment even to the official church. In the earlier Congress regime of S M Krishna, Sangliana, a Christian Officer from North-East openly sided with missionaries when the Ma Bhagavati temple in Devanahalli (Bangalore Rural) and Sri Durgamba Temple in Banaswadi (Bangalore) were demolished and churches erected in their place in 2002. In both cases, the Chief Minister and important Congress leaders supported the evangelicals. It is hardly surprising to learn, therefore, that as many as 84 Churches have sprung up in this area in the last two years. But the man who clinches the first prize as a great crusader for Christian causes is Y Samuel Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR), Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. A practicing Seventh Day Adventist, Reddy reportedly had 350 farmhands converted by the Adventists on his own farm, and is now building a church for them. Reddy is openly pro-missionary and anti-Hindu. Last year, when it was found that a church was being constructed on lands belonging to the famous Bhadrachalam Rama Temple, given to a Christian organization for setting up a school, the Chief Minister prevented restoration of the land to the temple. So now the church is coming up and conversion activity is in full swing at an exceedingly sacred Hindu site. What happened on 21May, is only the culmination of one small episode in the mischievous evangelization process initiated by YSR last year. I understand that temple lands are also being freely distributed in Naxal-infested areas in Andhra Pradesh. YSR has handed over the distribution of mid-day meals meant for government school students to Christian bodies and NGOs, who make the children recite " Yesu nama " before giving them the food. This not only tantamount to forced conversion but also involves the psychological abuse of minors. A two day Dharma Sammelan held at Tirupathi on 3 and 4 March. After the Conclusion of the Program, when all the Swamijis made their way for the Darshan of Lord Balaji, to everyone's surprise the Swamijis were denied entry into the Temple by Thomas Varghese (Executive Officer of Padmavathi Guest House) who is reported to be a close associate of Dr Y Samuel Rajshekar Reddy. And finally after a prolonged round of indoor pseudo-secular consultations, the Swamijis were let inside the sanctum to have the Darshan of the Lord. In the 2nd week of April, rumors were thick in the air in Tirupathi to the effect that a vested group of Christian Zealots were operating from inside State Transport Buses plying in the sacred Hills of Tirumala. The local BJP leaders in Tirupathi could only lodge a strong protest in front of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam Administrative Building on 11 April. As a crowning event to commemorate the completion of two years of anti-Hindu, anti-Sanathana Dhrama, anti-Lord Krishna, anti-Lord Rama, anti-Lod Shiva and anti-Durga, the UPA Government, A R Antulay, Minister for Minorities with a great and known moral stature and record of unimpeachable integrity, has asked the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to conduct an on the spot assessment of complaints of atrocities on Christians in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan all ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Laws against conversion are in place in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Rajasthan, a bill passed by the assembly in April awaits the governor's assent. Union Minister A R Antulay told the press recently that his ministry was concerned about the huge number of complaints from these states and had therefore decided to send a team for a reality check. Union Minister A R Antulay is not worried about what has just happened in Badrachalam Temple. Nor is he worried about the continuous slaughter of Hindu civilians in Jammu and Kashmir. In both these states Congress is ruling and only Hindus are at the receiving end. Hindus are non-entities to be dismissed at will. Only the Christians and Muslims are favored children and allowed to have their say in all matters and all situations. Hindus from 17th century Pundits of Tamilnadu to Mahatma Gandhi in the 20th century have wasted no end of breath to demolish the dogma of Christianity. But it has hardly made any difference to the arrogance of Christian theologians and missionaries. Sita Ram Goel in his path-breaking work History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304 to 1996) sharply concludes: This is because the dogma was never meant for discussion. It is an axiom of logic that that which has not been proved cannot and need not be disproved. Who has ever proved that the non-descript Jew who was crucified by a Roman Emperor of Judaea in 33 AD atoned for the sins of mankind for all time to come? Who has ever proved that those who accept that man as the only saviour will ascend to a heaven of ever-lasting bliss and those who do not will burn for ever in the blazing fire of hell ? Nor can the proclamation or the promise or the threat be disproved. High-sounding theological blah blah notwithstanding, the fact remains that the dogma is no more than a subterfuge for forging and wielding an organizational weapon for aggression against other people. Hindus should pay particular attention to the Christian missionary apparatus planted in their midst. The sole aim of this apparatus is to ruin Hindu society and culture and take over the Hindu homeland. Mahatma Gandhi would be dismissed today by Sonia Gandhi, Dr Y Samuel Rajasekar Reddy and all other Congressmen as communal and saffronized because he loved " Ram "a as his personal God and he wanted to create a Rama Rajya. They would be provoked to pseudo-secular anger against what Mahatma Gandhi wrote while in jail and published in the " Young India" of 8 February 1923: Reverend Macarish, elected Head of the Presbyterian Church Synod which recently met at Orillia in Canada referred to the incidental (I would say fundamental in the Andhra and Indian context!) commercial advantages of religious missions in the following words: "Our cry in the country had long been markets, wider markets, and since the introduction of the Fordney Bill, that cry has been louder and more insistent than ever. If the farmers and manufacturers desire to create a market, they would do well to get in touch with foreign Christian Missions, and we are assured that it would not be long till they received their money back with liberal interest. Although the missionary went to the foreign fields to win or harvest souls for Jesus, the results of his labors also meant the extension of commerce. Trade would follow the banner of the Cross, as readily as it would the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes, or any of the other national emblems and usually it cost a good deal less. In the past the missionaries had been the best advertisers of heathen countries. Dr John G Paton did more to advertise the South Sea Island than the sandalwood traders ever did, and who ever did more to advertise Africa than Rev. Livingston?" In more senses than one, Dr Y Samuel Rajasekar Reddy of Andhra Pradesh is now acting as the chosen spiritual heir of Rev Livingston today, under the over-arching protective umbrella of Sonia Gandhi's benediction!! V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
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