Sandesh Prabhudesai
21 October 1999
"Pope has not been given contract to find solutions to the problems of Hindu religion. We will find it ourselves. The Church has no right to bargain in the name of social service", says Sadhvi Rithambara, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader.
Flagging off the Dharm Jagaran Rath Yatra from Goa to Delhi, the fiery VHP leader admits that casteism is the root cause of the conversions taking place in India, but blames the political system for it, rather than the religious structure.
Glorifying the prevalent caste system in the Hindu religion, she says its basic concept was that Brahmin is the brain of a Hindu, Kshatriya is the strength, Vaishya is the waist and Shudra are the legs. "Without legs, a human being cannot even move", she says, asserting indirectly that shudra is a necessity.
But this 'beautiful' concept is being destroyed by the people like Mulayam Singh Yadavs and Laloo Prasad Yadavs who, she feels, have politicised it for their selfish political gains. On the other hand, even Brahmin today runs a shoe mart. Such a caste system is of no use, she quips.
Taking advantage of the economic conditions in the tribal areas, she says the Church has hatched an international conspiracy to give Bible to the helpless and take over their land. "How can we watch it silently", she shouts back.
She also raises a question whether Pope could be called secular, alleging that he opposes conversion of Roman Catholics to other cult or religion while allows others to convert to Christianity. She also blames the Church for taking Indians away from the Indian culture.
Making the purpose behind the yatra more loud and clear, Prof Subhash Velingkar, the state co-ordinator of the Sanskruti Raksha Manch, admits that Pope's visit is just an excuse they have picked up to take up the campaign against the Church.
It is an international conspiracy of the Church, he alleges, to make India a Christian state in next 300 years. Funds are being poured into India for this purpose whereas a systematic campaign is being taken up through the English media to distort the facts and put it before the public in a crude manner.
In order to justify it, he cities examples of all sorts of atrocities on Christians from rape on the nuns to the killing of Graham Stains which, according to him, are stray incidents but are being unnecessarily linked to the Sangh Parivar.
He also claims that India is not a multi-cultural country but it is a mixture of diversified culture of the same Hindu religion practices all over the country. "Why should 85 per cent Hindus harass only two per cent Christians here", he asks.
But the rally, held in Panaji before the yatra proceeded to Belgaum in Karnataka, failed to spell out in what way it would improve the conditions of the tribals so that they do not feel like getting themselves converted.
Its demands remain the same : apology from the Pope for almost five-century old inquisition in Goa, commitment from the Pope to stop forcible conversions and admit that any religion could take the man to the path of salvation.
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