A Fake and Fraudulent Chitrapur Saraswat

 

 

A Fake and Fraudulent Chitrapur Saraswat

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

I am a Chitrapur Saraswat, and proud to be one. Proud not because of any kind of feeling of personal or ethnic superiority, because I do not believe in such a thing as ethnic purity or superiority: I know there must have been massive communal intermixing in the last thousand years alone. I would have been proud of my caste or community, whatever it was. I believe anyone and everyone in the world should be proud of their own identity and culture and of their ancestors, from a positive point of view, simply because it is their identity and origin, and because those were their ancestors. And not from a negative point of view which treats other identities and cultures, and the ancestors of others, as being in any way inferior to their own, or in any way requiring to be replaced or supplanted by their own: Cultural Imperialism, Deracination, Exploitative Colonialism, Racism, Casteism, and Religious Proselytism are some examples of viciously negative or vikṛta forms of pride in one's own identity, origin, culture and ancestry (or its equivalent "opposite": e.g. a person culturally or religiously converted to another culture or religion who bears hatred or contempt for his own ancestral culture and religion). In fact, it is because I am proud of my own identity, origins and ancestors, that I can completely identify, empathize and sympathize with every other person in the world who is proud of his own identity, origin and ancestry in a similar positive sense and concerned for their defence. 

[Incidentally, it is in this sense that I am proud to call myself a Hindu Nationalist: I do not consider the word "nationalist" to be a negative one, and one to be shunned, as so many people do. In my article on "Hindu Nationalism", a part of my longer article in the Sita Ram Goel commemoration Volume "India's Only Communalist" (edited by Koenraad Elst) published by Voice of India in 2005, I have made it very clear and in great detail that a true positive nationalist has respect and comradely feelings towards every other person in the world who is also a positive nationalist, and cannot feel disrespect for, or indifference or hostility towards, someone else's positive nationalism. Within India itself, as I pointed out in that article, and in all subsequent articles, my Hindu Nationalism equally encompasses our Vedic Hindu heritage as well as all other different cultures native to this land in their purest forms. The Andamanese culture, the oldest, most distinctive, and today the most endangered and most under-attack culture, is to me as much my own culture as the culture of the Rigveda, or as Konkani, Marathi or Kannada culture, and, I have written many articles about the Andamanese people and culture and their right to survival in pure form. From my writings, it should be clear to anyone that I am no lover of Islamic Kashmir, and I have even, in a recent article, condemned the government for pouring billions, if not trillions, of Indian/Hindu taxpayers' money in "developmental" projects in Kashmir in desperate bids to try to woo Kashmiri Muslim voters. But anyone, Kashmiri or non-Kashmiri, Hindu or Muslim, pro-Indian or pro-Pakistani, who agitates against environmental exploitation and destruction in Kashmir in the name of "development", will have my full and unapologetic support on that particular matter].    

 

My own particular pride in my community is based on the fact that a tiny community totaling around 22000 people is not only probably the most literate (and also dowry-free) community in the country but has produced some of the topmost luminaries in almost every field to an extent totally disproportionate to its numbers. My article lists these luminaries (many more have come to my notice after that, but I know where to stop!):

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-chitrapur-saraswat-community.html

But I am naturally not proud of anything and everything associated with my community. Like all communities in the world, there will always be specific things which require to be deplored or to be ashamed for: as a probably landowning Brahmin community in the villages of Karnataka, many feudal social evils were very present in our community (I am sure caste prejudice and exploitation of lower castes was one of them in the past), and as recently as fifty years ago we still had some living examples of the deplorable shaven-headed widow era (one of my mother's aunts was one of them).

Likewise, while I am proud to note the number of eminent luminaries in every field in my community, I am not an admirer of all of them: their numbers include many vicious and anti-Hindu leftist writers, dramatists and journalists. Recently, I was shocked beyond words to discover that the judge who sentenced Swatantryaveer (Vinayak Damodar) Savarkar to fifty years imprisonment in the Andaman islands was a Chitrapur Saraswat, and an eminent one: Narayan G. Chandavarkar, President of the Indian National Congress, 1900-1901. Many of these anti-Hindu leftist "intellectuals" as well as N.G. Chandavarkar are mentioned in the list of "eminent" Chitrapur Saraswats in my article: their anti-Hindu activities do not make them any the less "eminent", just as their "eminence" does not make their anti-Hindu activities any the less condemnable.

 

But this article is about another Chitrapur Saraswat whom I would never label as "eminent", and whom I would consider to be not only deplorable and condemnable but also a fake and a fraud. This is a Chitrapur Saraswat who has apparently converted from Hinduism to Christianity, and actually become an Evangelist "pastor" Shekhar Kallianpur. His actions are certainly deplorable and condemnable, as are the actions of all persons who convert and get alienated from their ancestral religions and cultures, and, worse, themselves actually join and become a part of the army of marauders attacking their ancestral religions and cultures. But this in itself is not the reason for calling him a fake and a fraud: the following video shows why I call him a fake and a fraud:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ae9IqaAqnk

This video, put up by this fraud himself, shows a dramatized presentation of the story of how he converted to Christianity, which forms a regular part of his repertoire. Look carefully at the video: the extremely traditional Brahmin boy with his extremely traditional Brahmin father, both dressed up in the kind of extremely traditional Brahmin clothes that one sees in the Kannada films on traditional Karnataka Brahmins which leftist or art directors used to produce in the nineteen-seventies. This video would have us believe that a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin boy from a village in Karnataka, who dressed in such traditional clothes and indulged in traditional studies of Hindu scriptures, was transformed into the extremely fanatical Christian Evangelist that this man is today, who speaks in a fake westernized accent and lives a modern westernized lifestyle!

I am not casting any doubts on this man being a Chitrapur Saraswat. But I would really be very interested in knowing his exact date of birth, and the exact name of the village, and the exact years CE, in which he lived in this extremely picturesque traditional attire and upbringing in his childhood. Was he a resident of our Chitrapur Math in Shirali in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka (or one of its branches in other parts of coastal Karnataka), which is the only place I can think of where a young Chitrapur Saraswat boy in the second half of the twentieth century could have been living in this manner. Our community has mostly lived in cities and large towns in the twentieth century, and even Chitrapur Saraswats living in villages in the most mofussil rural area have been more modernized and westernized in their clothes and activities. I am not saying this with pride: I am just pointing out a fact. Where exactly was this traditional village where this "pastor" lived as a "traditional Brahmin boy" steeped in Hindu scriptures in his childhood?

 

This is not a new matter nor a big one. Fraud has always been a major cornerstone of Evangelist Christian activity from the moment of birth of this religion, and countless books by countless Indian and western scholars (including our Voice of India books by Sita Ram Goel, Ram Swaroop, Koenraad Elst, Arun Shourie and others, not to mention the Niyogi Committee Report, published by Voice of India) leave no scope for any two views on this. And this "pastor" is just an infinitesimally small cog in the massive machine of Evangelist activities who should really be given no importance by us.

But this particular "pastor" being a Chitrapur Saraswat, his depiction of his traditional "Chitrapur Saraswat" childhood before he saw the light being so blatantly fake and false, and his being in the news a few years ago in connection with an eminent RSS leader, prompted me to write this article.

In pursuance of its role as a vote-getter for the BJP, top leaders of the RSS have been busy in the last many years (or rather more busy than they used to be earlier) in establishing comradely relations with Islamist and Evangelist organizations, where they expect their fulsome praise for those worthies to rake in the Muslim and Christian votes for the BJP.

In one such program in Delhi on 19 December 2019, where there was a gathering of Evangelists from over 17 nations, the vice-President of the RSS, Indresh Kumar, particularly notorious for this kind of super-Secularist activity, was the Chief Guest. Here, for this Chitrapur Saraswat "pastor", Shekhar Kallianpur, it was, in his own words "a God moment for me to bring this beautiful message of Jesus Christ" to this RSS worthy. Strangely (or appropriately?) the event was reported in the newspapers the next day; and in many of the reports, this Shekhar Kallianpur was described as "Vice President of the RSS" bringing the message of Jesus Christ! The "pastor" had to issue a clarification in a 6.54 minutes video (which I have on my computer, downloaded from youtube at that time, but which seems to be missing on youtube now), titled "Pastor Shekhar Kalyanpur CLARIFICATION!!!" which featured his message at the program preceded by a written message:

"CLARIFICATION: This is to clarify the WRONG INFORMATION that is being circulated about me being misrepresented as the Vice President of RSS in the video of my message of CHRISTMAS that was delivered on the 16th December 2019 at New Delhi in the presence of Dr. INDRESH KUMAR Ji, the VICE PRESIDENT of RSS".

Perhaps this was an "amen" of things to come?

 

Opposition to the CAA - The Venomous Depths of Woke Hindu-Hatred

 

 

Opposition to the CAA - The Venomous Depths of Woke Hindu-Hatred

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

Today I just saw the following article when I entered Google Search: "Watch out, your social media posts might cost you a job" by Geetika Sachdev, one of the articles that automatically appear on the screen as being "Recommended by  Pocket":

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/social-media-professional-work-office-elections-censor-111713161320733.html

The very first paragraph actively discouraged me from going deeper into the article, as I realized it was not a genuine article objecting to anti-democratic and freedom-of-expression-restrictive trends in India (which even I have written about), but an article by a woke writer claiming a democratic right to indulge in vicious and disruptive hate-based anti-Indian and anti-Hindu activities in India and objecting to anyone else (less vicious and visceral in anti-Indian and anti-Hindu hatred) exercising their democratic right to show their disapproval of such vicious anti-nationalism by refusing to financially empower such activists by giving them lucrative jobs:

"For Anant Pujari, a marketing professional with a multinational in Mumbai, getting a job was a struggle, but not because he didn’t fit the desired role. It was because of his extremely vocal posts on social media, which was called out by prospective employers who refused to hire him if he wasn’t willing to change his online habits. For instance, he had shared images of his presence at the protests against the CAA-NRC Act in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, which did not go down well with recruiters."

 

Here the Holy Cause, for which the woke activist is being portrayed as a martyr for his principles, is not any issue of injustice to women, oppressed classes in mofussil areas, minors or helpless aged people, bonded laborers, or helpless trapped people (orphans or handicapped people or under-trials or jailed-prisoners, etc. in oppressive circumstances in various institutions) or any similar class of people who can and do face extreme problems in certain parts of the country: the Holy Cause is the injustice allegedly being done to Muslims outside India by the simple act of passing an Act to give asylum and citizenship in India to Hindus (which includes Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains of Indian origin, but also, and wrongly in my opinion, to Christians of Indian origin) who are living in, and facing active violence and persecution in, certain other countries which were once a part of Greater India and were trapped there around the time of Partition of  that Greater India.

 

These Islamists and Woke people whose hackles rise at the very thought of violently persecuted Hindus in other countries being given a chance to escape that violence and persecution by being allowed to get Indian citizenship, are the very same people who indulge in international wailing and breast-beating and shedding of crocodile tears at the idea of millions of Muslim infiltrators (Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from Burma) − many of them hardcore Islamist ideologues and activists − not being granted asylum and citizenship and even special benefits and treatment (not available to Hindu Indians) in India.

 

Every Secularist and Woke issue which has anti-Hinduism at its basis is baffling and frightening to the neutral observer in its degree of venomous hatred for Hindus, and one of the most baffling is this issue of opposition to the CAA! How and in what sense is a failure to be open to give blanket asylum and citizenship to Muslims who live outside India and who are not in any way a part of India at all, in any way "injustice towards", let alone "persecution of", Muslims who live inside India and who are already a part of India? It is mind-boggling to think of the degree of pathological mental sickness and the degree of vicious anti-Hindu hatred which can lead people not only to make an "issue" of this but to actually feel righteous and holier-than-thou in advertising to the world their hate-based activism in this Holy Cause.

 

 

And the funny part of this is that the CAA which these Hindu-haters claim is "anti-Muslim" is nothing but another sick joke on Hindus by its various open and hidden enemies:

 

1. It is an issue which is brought up by the BJP only as a potential vote-polarizer and Hindu-vote-magnet at the time of crucial elections where they think they can use it to their advantage, and then (after allowing it to create as much of a din and noise as possible) withdrawn and shelved in ice-cold storage till it can be brought out and dusted for re-use at the time of the next election: it was "passed" by Parliament in December 2019 for the purpose of the Delhi state assembly elections to be held two months later (in February 2020). Unfortunately it failed to achieve its objective in those elections, and it was shelved in cold-storage. Now it has been brought out again (even included in the BJP manifesto) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. After the elections, after its objective is achieved, it will go back into cold storage.

 

2. It is an absolutely fraudulent and toothless Act which gives extremely negligible benefits to Hindus persecuted in other countries: now in 2024, it can be used for the "benefit" only of those Hindu asylum-seekers who have already been in India from before 2014 (i.e. already more than ten years)! So those Hindus who want to get the nominal  benefits of the Act have to have been already living here for ten years: surely it would not (or certainly should not) have been a herculean task for such people to get asylum as per the regular procedure (and without all this fanfare and publicity) even in the normal course of things and without this Act?

 

As I pointed out in an earlier article, this Act was opposed tooth-and-nail from its inception stage itself by the entire gaggle of Secularist and Leftist gangsters, thereby contributing immensely to the BJP's campaign of being a "savior" of persecuted Hindus in other countries: "both" the sides, as I have always pointed out, are hand-in-glove with each other in the matter of polarizing Hindu and Muslim voters. This, in 2019, included the then Congress chief Minister of Punjab (and now one of the countless imported "BJP" stalwarts), Captain Amarinder Singh. However, the murderous attacks on Sikhs in Afghanistan just one year later led to this same man (then still in the Congress) demanding that these persecuted Sikhs should be granted asylum and citizenship in India! However, this fraudulent and toothless Act is totally impotent in doing anything for Hindus (which includes Sikhs) being persecuted or killed anywhere in the world − which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh − today or in 2020 or at any point of time after 2014!!:

 

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2020/04/hinduism-vs-hindutva-oxism-vs-oxatva.html

 

 

What should have been passed was an Act giving any Hindu (including any Sikh and Jain), or any Buddhist (of Indian origin only? This point requires discussion and debate!) who is being persecuted in any country anywhere in the world the right to apply for asylum and citizenship in India by a special and speedy process. Israel is a model in this respect: Israeli Law provides that any Jew from anywhere in the world can migrate to Israel and claim citizenship.

 

Israel is, as I wrote, a model in this respect, but not only in teaching us to do what they did but also in teaching us not to make one mistake that they made (though perhaps, from a certain point of view, most Israelis may still feel it was not a mistake): they allowed any Jew anywhere in the world the right to migrate to Israel and claim citizenship, without any riders. This opened the floodgates for  countless Woke (and consequently anti-Jewish) Jews from other parts of the world to emigrate to Israel and then continue their disruptive anti-Jewish and pro-enemy activities from inside Israel.

 

Which is why I wrote above "the right to apply for asylum and citizenship in India by a special and speedy process": not the right to automatically get it. Obviously India could do without countless pro-Khalistani, pro-Pakistani, anti-Hindu and anti-Indian "Hindus" from other parts of the world pouring into India and doing their work as Trojan Horses inside the country. So any such Act should have plenty of safeguards and checking procedures.

 

But all this is just talk. My talk: the talk of a staunch but realist Hindu who knows exactly what the situation is in India. Who will bring in such an Act? Secularist and Leftist politicians? Or backstabbing "Hindu-for-electoral-votes" mercenary politicians, with their crores-strong armies of bhakts and trolls who only want to see their political idols occupying thrones and raking in the money?

 

All I can say is that the article from Livemint which prompted this article in response from me, showed me a very, very faint "silver lining" in the dark clouds permanently hovering over India and becoming darker by the day: India still actually has patriotic Indians like the "prospective employers who refused to hire" woke anti-nationals like the hero of Geetika Sachdev's article "if he wasn’t willing to change his online habits".

 

But, again, this is just illusory comfort. I know this, and the reader of this article knows this. For every such "prospective employer" (and he may even well be a bhakt showing his bhakti for the party rather than the nation) there are countless others who will shower wealth on such woke anti-nationals. The story about this particular woke anti-national who was "refused" employment may after all just be a fictional part of the propaganda aspect of the article: after all, the same paragraph tells us that after all these "refusals", he did land up with a lucrative job as a "a marketing professional with a multinational in Mumbai".

 

The long and short of it is: Hindus in India today have nothing to be comfortable about. There are no real "silver linings" to the dark clouds.

 

Fraudulent "Hindutva" Propaganda

 

Fraudulent "Hindutva" Propaganda

 Shrikant G. Talageri

 

After splitting and co-opting opposition parties, siccing the ED and IT on individual corrupt but influential opposition leaders and then fully whitewashing and empowering them after they join the BJP, taking full control of the Election Commission, jailing opposition leaders and even opposition chief ministers who are not likely to jump ship into the BJP, choking opposition parties of new funds (and even freezing their existing bank accounts), and umpteen other measures − and in spite of the fact that even staunch critics like me are in no doubt that the BJP and Modi will be back in power (only the exact number of seats that they are likely to get being any matter of speculation or debate) − the BJP seems desperate to break every possible past record and present speculation in this matter of number of seats, so as to increase the absolute stranglehold of their Thousand-Year Reich on Indian polity, and is leaving no stone unturned in matters of organized propaganda to achieve its fullest objective.

In matters of propaganda, of course, we have the personality-cult of the Great Leader being emphasized in every possible different way. Here in Mumbai, every time I enter a local railway station (especially Charni Road station from the Chowpatty side after my morning walk), I find, facing me, a huge TV screen showing the PM walking casually (and alone) through a leafy ground where a sweeper/gardener is busy sweeping up the leaves with a broom. The PM pauses to inquire about his welfare, pats him encouragingly on the back, and then takes the broom and pan from him and starts sweeping the leaves into it!

All this is apart from the propaganda about the massive strides in economic development that have taken place under this Leader and this Party government.

All the above, though alternately irritating, amusing or gape-worthy, is perhaps legitimate in the field of electoral political propaganda for any party.

But the particular propaganda that I strongly object to, or at least feel like pointing out the fraudulent nature of, is the fake and brazenly fraudulent "Hindutva" propaganda. Though no political party (and most definitely not the BJP) has ever found it necessary to be discreet and reasonable in its political promises and claims before elections, nevertheless every party is aware that these promises and claims, if made officially, have some (even if only nominal and superficial) official relevance at least for table-talk discussion and purposes of criticism as a matter of official record.

When it comes to propaganda, especially (but not exclusively) on Hindutva issues, the BJP has a powerful second line of action on the ground (or rather in the media and social media): its huge armies of internet and whatsapp  bhakts and trolls, who make all the Hindutva promises that the BJP itself would never dare to make − and would never possibly dream of even trying to implement − and manage to create the impression among gullible Hindu voters that a vote for the BJP is a vote for Hindu survival.

 

One such whatsapp message doing the rounds was brought to my notice (I must mention here that I do not have or use a mobile phone, so it is just by chance that I saw this particular message):

"My personal request to all Hindu families.

Share with 10 family members and 10 friends. Don't go for picnic on Election Day. make sure you Vote for BJP and then go for picnic or to your work or to your friends place.

1. 407 seats are required in the Lok Sabha to abolish Waqf Board (this is more dangerous than Article 370 of Kashmir).

2. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then 10 crore Bangladeshi intruders will be driven away by implementing CAA_NRC law.

3. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then Minority Commission will be abolished.

4. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then Places of Worship Act will be abolished (Thousands of Hindu temples will be returned which were converted into mosques and given away).

5. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then Uniform Education Act will be made by banning Madrasa, the factory of terrorism.

6. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then 600 Minority Ministries run by the Centre and 29 State Governments, which have been running continuously for 77 years, will be abolished.

7. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then 2 child law will be made for everyone (Population Control Law).

8. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then UCC (Uniform Civil Code) will be implemented in whole India which will ban 4 Nikah and 3 Talaq.

9. If Modi has 407 seats in the Lok Sabha, then 100% properties of stone pelters and rioters will be confiscated and there will be provision of 10 years of punishment.

So friends, put in all your effort. This time BJP should cross 400, exactly 407 seats".

[The 10th point is an Economy-and-Development argument irrelevant to this article].

All this may seem unimportant in the sense that it just represents the views of some lay person: after all we all have the right to hold and express our views.

But it is not simple, ordinary, innocent or harmless. This is the kind of propaganda which is being systematically unleashed all over the country by well-funded and well-organized groups of "unofficial" propagandists. Thousands of such whatsapp messages are flooding the social media, influencing countless millions of people to vote for a party which is in no way morally or practically or legally bound to fulfill such claims and promises made by some lay person in his personal capacity. Has the BJP made, or even hinted at anything indirectly in the faintest possible way, in respect of a single one of these points (except point 8)? Will the BJP, either its Supreme leader or even any BJP leader in a minor capacity who could be considered in any way some kind of spokesperson for the BJP, dare to endorse a single one of these claims and promises officially without having strong action taken against him by the Party?

 

The claims made by these unofficial social media propagandists are not about unimportant or irrelevant issues. All these issues are indeed extremely important for the survival of Hindus, Hinduism and India.

What is wrong, and not just wrong but fraudulent and even criminal, on the part of these unofficial propagandists is the claim that the BJP is going to do any of these things. Most of these issues are described and discussed in detail, with facts and figures, by Anand Ranganathan in his book "Hindus in Hindu Rashtra − Eighth-Class Citizens and victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid". They are issues which should, in sensible words, be included in, and in fact should form the highlights of, the election manifesto of any political party claiming to be Hindu or Hindutvawadi, or even simply claiming to believe in justice to and equal treatment of all citizens regardless of religion. But these issues (with the exception of point 8, on which more presently) do not form any part of the proclaimed manifesto or agenda of the BJP:

 

 

Not only do these issues (with the exception of point 8) not form any part of the proclaimed "Hindu" agenda of the BJP, but in fact, in respect of every single one of these issues, even Ranganathan's book points out that the BJP stands exactly in the same category as all other parties and that it has not done anything in respect of a single one of the issues. But while there are areas where Anand Ranganathan fears to tread, there are many other clear-headed, intrepid, honest, sincere and forthright Hindus on the social media who have repeatedly highlighted how the BJP is not only not a savior of Hindus or Hinduism, or a follower of the simple principle of equality for Hindus with non-Hindus, but actually and actively the worst offender against Hindus in respect of all these issues.

 

Yes, "Uniform Civil Code" (point 8 in the above list) figures in the manifesto. But in what way is it relevant to Hindus or in what way is it a Hindu issue? It is a purely Secular issue in the truest sense of the term: every secular country in the world has a uniform civil code; and even the framers of the Constitution of India made it a Directive Principle of State Policy to introduce a Uniform Civil Code. And, last but not least, it does not benefit or even concern Hindus as such in any way: it is Muslim women who should be clamoring for a Uniform Civil Code, not Hindus.

Note that Anand Ranganathan in his above book has given a full list of all the things that a Hindu party should do for Hindus. One of them, the "Waqf Board", which is indeed "more dangerous than Article 370 of Kashmir", was in fact not fully known in all its horror even to a person like myself (whom no-one can accuse of being ignorant in matters of Hindu issues) until I read his book. Is there even the faintest of possibilities that the BJP − which would never even dream of claiming to want to do so − could possibly try to abolish this monstrosity (in whose creation and perpetuation it has actively participated down the decades, as shown in detail by so many true Hindus in the social media) under any circumstance?

Note that the abolition of articles 25-30 of the Constitution, or their equal application to Hindus also along with non-Hindus − which is the single most important thing that requires to be done, is completely missing in not only the BJP manifesto and promises but also in the fraudulent claims and promises of its unofficial propagandists. It must be noted that just as the Uniform Civil Code is a Secular issue which should concern Muslim women and does not benefit or even concern Hindus as such in any way; similarly the equal application of Articles 25-30 to followers of all religions (Hindus as much as Muslims and Christians) is also a Secular issue which should concern Hindus and does not harm or even concern non-Hindus (especially Muslims, though it might affect the political machinations of leftists and evangelist institutions by protecting Hindu institutions from their attacks): it must be noted that the only politician to have seriously tried to bring a bill in Parliament for equal application of Articles 25-30 to followers of all religions was Syed Shahabuddin of the Babri Masjid Action Committee, and his proposed bill was effectively killed by all other political parties, including the BJP!

 

Therefore it must be understood why the BJP officially, as well as through its troll armies, so completely sidelines the issue of Articles 25-30. The first reason is, of course, that all mercenary politicians of all shades want to loot and milk public institutions to the maximum extent. These articles prevent them from doing so effectively in respect of Muslim and Christian educational and religious institutions, but at least allow them to do so in respect of Hindu institutions. So, plainly and simply: BJP politicians (always seeing things from the point of view of politicians in power who are expecting to be always in power), just like all other politicians, don't want to lose these mercenary powers.

But there is a more deplorable reason why the BJP is not bothered about the iniquities of Articles 25-30 in respect of Hindus:

A look at the list of nine Hindu or "Hindu" issues listed in the propagandist whatsapp message ( which is just one drop in the flood of such propagandist messages doing the rounds of social media in this pre-election period) shows that (although each one of them is a perfectly important, legitimate and necessary issue for Hindus, and at the same time it is equally clear that the BJP has no intentions of doing any of those things), nevertheless all the nine issues (even though one of them, the Uniform Civil Code, gives no practical benefit to Hindus as such) can have a strong polarizing effect on Hindus and non-Hindus (specifically Muslims):

In respect of a certain section of Hindus, all these issues make them think "this will teach those buggers a lesson", and, in respect of most Muslims (although to different degrees), they help them think in their time-tested traditional terms of "we are under attack from kafirs". However, the issue of equal application of Articles 25-30 to followers of all religions (even though it gives incalculable benefits to Hindus and Hinduism) neither "teaches those buggers a lesson" nor raises the bogey of "we are under attack from kafirs"; and therefore is of zero polarizing value in pseudo-Hindutva electoral politics. This is the cynical reason why this issue does not figure (as yet, that is) in the list of claims and promises being made safely off the record by the unofficial troll armies. Of course, for purposes of strategy − after all, promising to do something does not mean you have to do it − it (or some other one of the genuine Hindu issues listed by Anand Ranganathan in his book, or raised elsewhere by other true Hindu thinker-activists) could still figure as a last-ditch issue. But just an electoral issue to be shelved permanently after the votes are counted.

Will these cynical tactics work? Sadly, since this is the kaliyug age of "asatyameva jayate", I at least feel certain they will. But, whether it serves any practical purpose or not, it is also necessary that the truth should be pointed out on record. Hence this article.