The holy double-cross

Insiders and people in the know of things claim that the real reasons were the usual pedestrian stuff, namely, corruption and nepotism and that the game was up.

However, when the Madras University VC ‘put in’ his papers a couple of days back his act was sought to be given a lofty coating: That he had done so owing to the recent papal condemnation of the anti-forcible conversions act in TN and that as a true Jesuit owing primary allegiance to the ‘oath’ and Pope, it was untenable for him to continue in office. And what a give-away, that, though just a red-herring.

For, in their bid to ‘whitewash’ petty acts with a holy camouflage, his sponsors have actually let the cat out of the cassock. And of course, there is no explaining why the VC took so long to remember his oath and why it needed a long-distance wake-up call from the Pope to shed his amnesia, induced obviously by a plum post.

But of course, this is not what I propose to discuss today; the VC issue is rather a trigger that has ignited legitimate concerns about the safety of India, that is Bharat which has in all good faith courted a constitution guaranteeing ‘absolute religious freedom’ to the point of self-destruction.

The pope, pardon, Pope indeed had no business meddling in the affairs of a sovereign country that India is. But pray, it is also not the business of bishops, who are supposedly citizens of this sovereign country, to embark on a lament lap around the globe to elicit ‘outside’ support on what is essentially an internal matter of ‘their’ country.

Unless of course, they deem that there is a higher authority that constitutes a forum of appeal against the laws of the country of their citizenship. And that is precisely what they believe and also act on, as true toilers who till the Pope’s grand farm, always on the lookout for fertile fields of humanity to reap bountiful harvests for the faith! And the lord of Vatican has promptly reacted in sync with his courtiers here by condemning the offending laws that threaten to play spoilsport by inducing a ‘crop failure’ in this part of heathen country.

No Pope, unless he is a doupe, can countenance this slight to His supremacy . Hence the chorus of hurt.

There has never been a dearth of indignant voices whenever suspicions are raised about the danger to the nation’s security and sovereignty owing to cross-border religious loyalties. But such protests and self-righteous rhetoric emanating from these robed gentle(?)men are just smokescreens to hide their unholy motives and to carry on their nefarious mission of securing souls into their flock by whatever means they could muster.

Denationalisation and separatism are inherent and inseparable from missionary activity for they are legacies of the British who were ever on the lookout for justifications to perpetuate their rule in India.
What better way could there be to ensure loyalty to the Raj than religious affinity, went the logic. And concerns about such subversive tendencies were adequately expressed and documented in detail with facts and figures, not now, but at least fifty years back, when India was a just-born nation. The Niyogi committee which went into the activities of the missionaries in the wake of tensions owing to conversions in Madhya Pradesh had not minced words on such extra territorial loyalties and what it portends for India.

Here are some of the observations:

…the idea of change of religion as bringing about change of nationality appears to have originated in the Missionary circles..the missionaries by converting them give them a separate nationality, so that they may demand a separate state for themselves.

The separatist tendency that has gripped the mind of the aboriginals under the influence of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Missions is entirely due to the consistent policy pursued by the British government and the Missionaries.

After a villager is converted to Christianity, it is easy to alienate his mind against his society as well as his country and State …Christian convert changes his style of dress and assumes the air of a foreigner.

The supremacy of the Christian flag over the national flag of India was also depicted in the drama which was staged in a school in Jabalpur.

The expression ‘jai Hind’ was substituted with ‘Jai yeshu’..

And what were the Committee’s conclusions? Here goes:

Since the Constitution of India came into force there has been an appreciable increase in the American personnel of the Missionary organisations operating in India. This increase is obviously due to the deliberate policy of the International Missionary Council to send evangelistic teams to areas of special opportunities opened to the Gospel by the Constitutional provision of religious freedom in some of the newly independent nations, equipped with new resources for mass evangelism through the press, film, radio and television.

Missions are in some places used to serve extra-religious ends …instances of indirect political activities were brought to the notice of the Committee.

As conversion muddles the convert’s sense of unity and solidarity with his society, there is a danger of his loyalty to his country and state being undermined.

Evangelisation in India appears to be part of the uniform world policy to revive Christendom for re-establishing Western supremacy and is not prompted by spiritual motives. The objective apparently is to create Christian minority pockets with a view to disrupt the solidarity of the non-Christian societies, and the mass conversions of a considerable section of Adivasis with this ulterior motive is fraught with danger to the security of the State..

The allegations by missionaries that they are being harassed by Government officials is part of the old established policy of the Missions to overawe local authority and to carry on propaganda in foreign countries…
Aah, how true the last one rings, though a full fifty years have passed since those ominous pronouncements. So today, the anti-forcible conversions law is deemed harassment by these priestly predators and what do they do? Appeal to the Pope who sits in far away Vatican, which till the time of going to press, is not a part of India and nor has the latter become its colony, not yet! It is the Pope and the ‘oath’ that matters, not India and its laws! But silly, you and me, does the Jesuit oath not ordain them thus –’ …to be all things to all men, for the Pope’s sake whose servants we are unto death’.

So what if their trans-national sob-sojourns take an anti-national tinge as has happened now? And what if someone dares to bell these holy cats? The Pope, nay the entire Christian world, will then rise to their rescue as one man against the heretics and their blasphemous laws that cannot comprehend the sovereignty of the Pope and the right of Christianity to confiscate consciences at will! What suckers, we have turned out to be!

And the joke is on India on another count too. These franchisees of faith are deemed minorities in this country while they have none less than the Pope with all his mammoth army of minions, muscle, money etc, etc at his disposal to back them. Suddenly our Constitution becomes sacrosanct for them for does it not ensure religious freedom and unhindered minority rights under which cloak they can go about in gay abandon, planting insidious seeds of hatred and discord!

The law of the land is acceptable only so long as it is subservient to their oath of allegiance to the Vatican. Heads win, Tails win! What a double-cross!

Their sermon is quite emphatic, only that we are all too naive to read the blunt message: To hell with your Constitution and laws, Pope is our only hope, Amen!

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