Part 1 of this post talks about the effects of the Right To Education (RTE) bill enacted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
Lack of action against Foreign Interference in Hindu and Indian issues
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap] number of NGOs funded by foreign entities including church affiliated organizations are actively engaged in lobbying for Hinduphobic laws such as the aforementioned RTE, or using the Public Interest Litigation (“PIL”) mechanism in Indian courts to attack Hindu practices. This is clearly a political intervention in the Indian society.
To draw an analogy, will the United States tolerate a Chinese-funded NGO lobbying for anti-Christian education laws, or denigrating Christmas? Isn’t that preposterous? Why hasn’t the BJP government amended or used the FCRA to prohibit foreign NGOs from politically attacking the Indian society and interfering in India’s internal affairs?
- PILs by Foreign Funded NGOs: Whose Interest it it Anyway?
- Foreign NGOs Fund the Advocacy of RTE in India
Government institutional infrastructure to encourage conversion away from Hinduism
-
Why do government organizations – funded by the Indian tax payers – exist to specifically provide benefits to Christians, which incentivises conversion activities?
-
Among the activities funded by these government-run corporations are church constructions, support for coaching classes to compete in exams such as the IAS, providing money (Rs 51,000 in Telangana) to Christian girls for marriage, giving subsidies and income, assisting law graduates and so on to Christians. These activities are not only strong financial incentives to encourage conversion away from Hinduism into Christianity but also strategic in nature as they enable Christians to embed converts into government power centers.
There is one government undertaking in Kerala that specifically exists to give money to Christian converts from Scheduled Castes!! It is mind-boggling to see that Indian tax payer is funding activities that weaken Hinduism. -
There is an entire department in the Government of Karnataka that is specifically dedicated to giving money to Christians for various purposes. They have a specific initiative to fund construction, renovation and development of churches:
- Directorate of Minorities – Karnataka. Here is the website of their Christian Development Program where they describe the program to apply for funds to construct churches.
- Karnataka Government funding Churches. Article indicates that Rs. 14.85 crores ($2.23 million) were granted by the government for repair and renovation of churches alone.
- How Karnataka government is spending crores of rupees on Churches: A Report
-
However, when it comes to Hindus, the law does the opposite. Forget about helping Hindus construct or repair temples, it instead takes money and property away from temples! A recent High Court judgment in Rajasthan, took away all land belonging to temples and vested it in the state government. The state government (run by the BJP), instead of fighting for Hindus’ religious freedom, issued advertisements to auction the land right away! Is there any country in the world where the law so blatantly works against the interests of its majority religion?
-
It is mind-boggling that not only does the government take money away from Hindu temples which deprives Hindus of funds to spend on community welfare, the government also actively funds Christian churches from the taxpayers’ funds. Do Hindus know that their tax rupees are being used to fund institutions and activates of Christianity? Why does the BJP government allow such abuse of Indian taxpayers’ money and government power to promote Christianity? How is this legal or even possible? Can you imagine a US taxpayer funded government agency giving money to those Christians converting into Hinduism, or funding construction of Hindu temples while taking land or money away from Christian churches? Is that secularism?
-
Construction of minority-only schools. Telangana state is going to construct 60 residential schools only for minorities. Why is this allowed or possible?
Government economic incentives to encourage conversion away from Hinduism
-
Minority scholarship schemes. The central government provides scholarships to students but only if they are not Hindus. These scholarships are worth thousands of crores of rupees and reach crores of students. This scheme was introduced by the UPA government in 2007. The scholarships are administered by states.
-
The irony is that Chief Minister Modi was strongly opposed to this scheme and refused to implement it in Gujarat. Gujarat was the only state to oppose these scholarships as discriminatory and fought them all the way to the Supreme Court from 2008 to 2013 before being forced to implement them. PM Modi, on the other hand, seems to have no problem having his HRD minister administer the same scholarship programs. There is no better example of PM Modi’s utter failure to end legal discrimination against Hindus than this.
-
Hindu voters must ask PM Modi what changed between 2013 and 2014, and why he doesn’t consider their children worthy of scholarships. Not even one scholarship out of the 2.46 crore (24.6 million) has gone to a Hindu child from 2012 to 2015. Does the slogan of “sabka saath, sabka vikaas” not apply to poor Hindu children who cannot afford to get education? Must they convert to Islam or Christianity to avail themselves of scholarships given to non-Hindu children?
-
Loan waivers. The aforementioned Kerala State Development Corporation for Christian Converts runs loan waiver schemes for converts. This is an indirect way of paying money to Hindus to convert away from their religion. Why and how is this legal or possible under a full majority BJP government?
Conclusion
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]I[/dropcap]t is quite clear that the BJP has no regard for its Hindutva constituency. If anything, as we can see from its failure to repeal Hinduphobic laws or dismantle Hinduphobic government machinery, it is helping further entrench Hinduphobic forces. The BJP government is like Nero fiddling away while his house is being set afire by its enemies. Those Hindu voters who considered the election of Narendra Modi as their civilizational duty are today wondering if they were hoodwinked by just another politician.
The BJP is being quite myopic politically by not addressing the concerns of their core support base. Hindus are tired of historical discrimination perpetuated by the Nehruvian socialist-Hinduphobic government machinery since India’s independence, and impatient for change. In Modi, they saw their first hope for righting historic wrongs. They therefore became his strongest supporters, and mobilized all resources at their disposal to help his election. This was the main reason why Hindus, for the first time, rose above their petty caste and regional differences to vote for Modi. Even today, Modi’s strongest supporters on social media are from this group.
Make no mistake – this group is getting extremely impatient as they have seen no evidence of BJP doing anything to earn their support. If Modi disappoints them, this group will simply not show up again to re-elect him. For this group of Hindu voters, nothing matters more than restoring Hindus’ rightful claim for fair treatment and respect by the Indian state. If Modi does not deliver to this group in the next 3 years, BJP can kiss goodbye to the election in 2019.
By not working to restore equal rights for Hindus when it is in power, the BJP is making an historic blunder of epic proportions. Its failure to deliver on this critical agenda has made its core support base dejected and weak. The Hindu unity wave that elected Modi is dissipating and Hindus are unfortunately going back to their self-destructive tendencies of being divided along caste and regional fault lines. By not consolidating the historic gains made from uniting Hindus in 2014, BJP is setting itself up for a generational disaster and writing its own political obituary. As Hindu civilization faces unprecedented attacks today, history will not treat BJP kindly for its betrayal of Hindus at such a critical juncture.
Note:
1. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 USD = 66.68 Rupees.
2. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
- Hinduphobia for minority votes? Concluding part - September 23, 2016
- Legalized Hinduphobia – RTE Law, hurts Hindus Part 1 - September 20, 2016
