Indeed, one should wholeheartedly welcome Jayalalithaa ‘ s annadhanam scheme as well as the spiritual classes in TN temples for their sheer boldness. It is not often that politicians with all their secular baggage muster the strength and courage to come up with such initiatives in the prevailing political milieu.
Of course, the success of the scheme depends on the sustainability which in turn relies heavily on funding from donors and the temples ‘ own sources with Jayalalithaa herself making it clear that the State government may not be able to make much of a contribution. While the response to annadhanam is bound to exceed expectations, given the lack of even a square meal a day to many, the spiritual classes will need some pushing owing to the absence of spiritual appetite amidst the people.
All such schemes are bound to invite the derision of economic pundits and can therefore thrive only on the unstinted support of the person at the helm. But in secular India, there are also other roadblocks that have to be tackled only out of conviction for the cause. Fortunately, Jayalalithaa does not lack either. And she is no pretender too!
Of course, expectedly, the chorus has begun in right earnest with very secular champions of the minorities, among them and outside, crying foul and inundating the TV channels over the last forty-eight hours. Now why should they object, if they are all truly secular? Is not secularism a pseudonym for religious tolerance?
After all, are they and their practices not being tolerated by their Hindu ‘ bretheren ‘ despite being at odds with their own beliefs? Why don ‘ t the minority leaders for a change put up with a long overdue gesture towards Hindu places of worship and culture, if not out of respect and gratitude for the accommodative majority, at least for the sake of their beloved secularism? Whoever told them that secularism should flow only from the majority to the minorities? It is secularism for sure even if it is the other way round! This is said not to beg for acceptance but to kindle the secular consciences which are presently partisan!
But really, why should a Chief Minister of the State take permission from the minorities at all, as is being suggested or rather, demanded by them, for doing the just thing by the electorate that had voted her in? Do these secular dissenters really believe that their no-objection certificate has to be obtained before conferring any benefit on the majority community? Indeed that ‘ s what they all seem to think, an attitude that is not only presumptuous but also preposterous.
All these decades of perennial pampering, instead of evoking a sense of gratitude and tolerance towards the larger majority, have only emboldened them seek the sky. But it is the secular dispensations and their authors, the politicos who have to be blamed more for this topsy turvy state of affairs. The bulk of the minority leaders, both political as well as religious – both being the same often – are only behaving the way they are wont to. For them it is only their religion that counts and to their credit, it must be said that they have never made a secret of it. It is only the secular Hindu who has been deluding himself all along that their tolerance would be reciprocated.
The politicos for their part deem the religious cohesiveness of the minorities as a god-sent glue that binds them into a captive vote bank. So he would do anything to secure this electoral treasure, wholesale, all for himself, as if it was Mckenna ‘ s goldpile. Imagine a hypothetical situation wherein the bulk of the Hindus of the country decide to vote only for Hindu candidates, like most of the minorities do. The politicians would promptly dump all their secularisms and would overnight convert into such Hindu zealots that even the VHP would start getting an inferiority complex! So much for their secularism.
Thanks to this issue, the true colours of the self-styled champions of the minorities as well as the minority leaders themselves, have been exposed. As they rant endlessly on the tube, with their attire and attitude oozing with religious zeal, one is really forced to ponder in pain if this is the kind of secularism that we have wrought upon ourselves. There is not a sense of discretion, nary any decency as they shamelessly pillory the ‘ undue benefit ‘ conferred on the ‘ undeserving majority ‘ .
There is not even any self-realisation about the quantum of benefits that have been heaped on them all these decades under the very noses of the silent majority. The majority would be fools to believe that this appetite of the minorities could be satiated and the sinister angle to it is the latter ‘ s tendency to bite the hands that feed.
One is forced to be blunt, but come to think of it, so are the minority leaders when it is a matter of defending their faith and so-called rights. Well, it would be foolhardy to be coy when the flavour of the season is frankness!
Now having said all that, why the hell are the minorities bothered if annadhanams and reading of scriptures take place in temples? What locus standi do they have, when the funding is not even from the State ‘ s pockets unlike the many official doles that are showered on them? How does it affect their sentiments, let alone secularism, if Hindu practices are implemented to the letter in temples which come under the HR&CE unlike the mosques and churches which have no such shackles?
Again,should the Chief Minister now pretend to rise up to their secular expectations by ordering similar schemes in other places of worship too? Will not such a gesture look contrived and done for effect just to silence a handful of critics? Would the minorities have complained if such annadhanams and spiritual classes were held in mosques or churches only, and not in temples? Not a voice would have been raised against such an injustice and instead the whole thing would have just passed off as sacred secularism.
Our secularism stinks. How else would you describe something that kicks up such a muck making a great majority turn away in disgust? Political hypocrisy combined with endless minority greed have together created a heady cocktail that is nectar to a few and poison to most.
Little wonder that sipping soup at Iftars is deemed secularism but partaking of payasam at Parthasarathy Temple is communal; Subsidising Haj pilgrimages with untold losses to the exchequer and the airlines is secularism while Ayyappa devotees have to fret and sweat to reach their god in their own land with no concession whatsoever from the Government.
The list of such inequities is endless but our liberal secular container can hold this and even more. And it is bottomless!.
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