This morning I received a video from Orissa of a church group who were stopped from worshipping by a police patrol. I watched as the church service was stopped and the priest dragged to the police station. He was let off later, because the only reason he was taken was to harass him and cause fear among the parishioners.
But I want to move away from that scene as it is becoming increasingly common. I want to move across to why a majority community is bothered by the religious faith of minorities. Do the majority community realise they are just being hoodwinked, that fear is being imposed into their minds about issues where there is nothing to fear about?
Let's take the ‘anti-conversion’ law that we hear so much about. Very often I go out of station and stay with a close friend of mine in his home. He does the same when he comes to my city. At his home, I open my Bible and pray in the guestroom he always throws open for me even as I know from the incense smells that waft to my room that either he or his wife are doing their pooja.
Many times in our discussions I bring references to the Bible, and he does the same from Hindu scriptures. Not once has he felt threatened by this or I by him.
Now comes an imaginary scene, the doorbell rings and a policeman at the door says to him, “Sir we have come to arrest your friend! He was trying to convert you!”
I can imagine my friend saying, “Do I look like a weak man?”
“No sir, it is not about you. It is about him!”
“No it is about me,” says my friend, “When you come to give me protection, you make me appear weak!”
In other words what the policeman is actually saying is, “We don’t feel you are strong enough to protect yourself!”
That is exactly what these laws are actually saying, “We feel you are weak, so we want to spend taxpayers money in defending you!”
Is my friend really weak? On the contrary I feel that most Hindus in our country are strong in their faith, as even with Christians and Muslims ruling our nation for nearly five centuries and before that with Buddhism also being practiced by rulers, the impact was hardly felt!
And so, with Love- Jihad. What this law tells our women is, “You can’t control your hearts!” Really? Is that how your daughter or mine is? Do our women realise they are being called weak?
We are not weak but strong people! Strong enough to send a spacecraft to the moon. Learn to be discerning and realise that to distract us from real issues that we need to vote on, we are being made to fear shadows, from which we need no protection..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
