I
wanted to keep my mouth shut on this issue, but the more I read about it, I
feel compelled to add my 2 cents worth.
First,
the issue: The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat targeting Mother Teresa (it will be only
Teresa henceforth in this piece), accusing her of doing conversion in the guise
of charity and comments thereon from all and sundry.
Why
did Bhagwat choose Teresa as the target? It must have been because she must be,
by a distance, the most respected Indian icon of Christianity. Let us not mince
words about this. Her charity work just burnished her iconic image, Bhagwat
implies, all towards the end of recruiting for Christianity. I am no one to
argue on this.
RSS
has the unenviable task of recruiting to pad up the numbers of Hindus (adding
to the majority – diminishing marginal returns). This is to be done by taking down
the icons of the other religions. He chose Teresa. So, you hit where it hurts
the most. Of course, you have your fellow travelers, even beyond the so-called
Hindutva brigade, like Christopher Hitchens. Also, the target herself has been
quite so obliging, by being seen with, taking donations for her charity from,
and implicitly endorsing the murderous dictator Baby Doc Duvalier of Haiti and
by kowtowing to the unconscionable demands of the Roman Catholic Church on the
abortion and birth control fronts. Yes, there are allegations that people on
death bed were baptized.
But,
in my opinion this choice is inappropriate. If Teresa really did want to add to
the Christian flock, she would have chosen people who would have been in their
reproductive prime! Obviously lepers, terminally ill people, who were her
clients for the most part, are most unsuited for the task at hand. Baptizing people
on their death beds? That is a cul-de-sac, adding people to Christianity in the
other world and not in this world! I credit Teresa with a certain level of
intelligence that she would have seen the futility of her efforts in the
alleged actions.
This
is why I think Mohan Bhagwat’s choice of the target, quite soft but useless, in the back ground of conversions and
reconversions, is ill advised!
Raghuram
Ekambaram
4 comments:
This is the defining point
Obviously lepers, terminally ill people, who were her clients for the most part, are most unsuited for the task at hand.
I have copied it on my facebook status with due acknowledgement
I have copied it on my facebook status with due acknowledgement
Thanks Balu for the appreciation and also for promoting it.
RE
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