Ram Rahim and introspection

Keki Daruwalla

To quote from an essay of mine in a book ‘India Dissents’, I wrote: “A harmless comedian  Kiku Sharda, (comedians are mostly harmless) mimicked Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh exquisitely. The district police of Kaithal (in Haryana) flew their inspectors to Mumbai to arrest him for mimicking Rahim. He was brought to Haryana and released on bail on court orders. But even as he was travelling on his way back to Delhi, the Fatehabad police (again in Haryana) got into the act and re-arrested him. “Could this judicial comedy have occurred, never mind the state expense incurred in airlifting inspectors to Mumbai, without the active urging of the BJP government in Haryana? How does it matter if a rape accused, but ‘religious head’, is mimicked? How does it affect law and order? The BJP was pandering to the so-called ‘hurt sentiments’of dera Premis. I have written in the past on the Rs 50 lakh given by Haryana’s Sports Minister to this dera in the past.

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The less said about the Haryana Police the better.  Wasn’t it their job to see that these crowds didn’t gather in Panchkula? Wasn’t it the Director General’s duty? Why has he not been suspended? Why is the Chief Minister not sacked till now? In this country of no accountability,  does everyone go scot-free, after scores are dead and injured?

Didn’t we have a similar spectacle at Mathura where also in a confrontation with a bogus religious guy over 20 persons lost their lives and a brave Superintendent of Police was killed by ruffians? I am also reminded of the Haryana conman, who would bathe in milk and his ‘devotees’ would make sweets (holy prasad) out of the filthy mess and eat it.

Why are we Indians worshipping buffoons? Sorry, that should read, why are we north Indians worshipping these rogues? Sorry, that should read why have Hindus and Sikhs, mostly from rural areas, been so misled as to owe allegiance to these people? No other community — Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists have such godmen. The majority communities in North India need to introspect. A little less of the divine won’t harm the community. And the seniors in the community should come together and ban the wretched ‘human divine’, never mind that the BJP is encouraging this sham religiosity. Look at the respect given to Shri Shri and the ecological havoc he played in regard to the Yamuna bank, to put up some inconsequential song and dance show. And the BJP government will see to it that he doesn’t pay a dime of the Rs 3 crore that he legally owes. Don’t forget the molester Asaram and the fact that seven witnesses have been allegedly murdered by his henchmen.  I happened to be in Valsad when Asaram came there. The whole city seemed to have become his follower. He got a presidential reception.

And the Sanathan Sanstha at Pune, responsible for killing the three rationalists — Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi — has still not been indicted four or more years after the first murder.

 In the 19th century we had these great religious reform movements, the Arya Samaj and the Brahmo Samaj. Have these movements/philosophies  got diluted or swallowed up by this ‘andh vishwas’ credo?  Shouldn’t people in outbacks and villages be told to think for themselves, think rationally and not worship anyone? Let us not forget that two years back some organisation was about to put a statue of Nathuram Godse in a Meerut temple. The Hindu Mahasabha still wants to honour him. How about a moratorium on public statues, say for 10 years.

Aren’t there rationalists in the community to tell people that Ganga is a river like any other, and it does come from heaven and fall on Lord Shiva’s locks? The chasm between mythology and reality is ignored. In the West they no longer teach their children that God made the world in six days and had a nice snooze on the seventh.  As long as we use myth as a metaphor, it is fine. Relax on Sabbath, don’t stress yourself pal, even God rested on Sabbath. No problem. But if you start transposing scripture and myth on reality, there’s trouble. The Vedas, the Old Testament and all chronicles coming down from Gilgamesh or the Egyptian Akhenaton (remember his lovely hymn to the Sun?), all of these never mentioned a word about the dinosaurs and that frightening Jurassic Park family, because they had no idea. They had no means to know. We have.

People need to ask questions of themselves. How will  the millions who flock to the Kumbh Mela be told that there may be nothing very purificatory in this bathing ritual? Rationalists should put up stands at these melas. Greeks don’t believe in Lethe and Styx and the boatman Charon anymore.  Mars and Saturn are okay for horoscopes, not for current reality. Why must we go on believing in Rahu and Rahu kalam and Ketu? Somewhere, sometime, we need to stop and think.

(The views expressed by the writer are his own)