Has it been too silent for the Sangh Parivar of late, that RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat decided to court controversy again by speaking out against Mother Teresa, of all people?! On February 24, the RSS chief spoke out against Mother Teresa’s service for the poor during an event in Rajasthan, adding that her intentions had always been religious conversion. “People like Mother Teresa did good work and service. But the aim was to convert the poor to Christianity. This kind of service is devalued if conversions are done in the name of service or work,” he said.
Yeah right! I suppose the RSS would better appreciate open intentions of conversion, countrywide pogroms and mudslinging other religions, rather than service.
But more importantly, why must Mother Teresa be maligned this way? Is nothing sacrosanct? Or does the Sangh Parivar feel Rahul Gandhi’s proposed sabbatical has drawn too much attention, that they have come up with such an outrageous theory?
Bhagwat’s statements were promptly supported by the RSS and the Shiv Sena, while BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi voiced her agreement with Bhagwat’s statement. Lekhi on Tuesday said that Mother Teresa had herself in an interview said that “a lot of people confuse me as social worker, I am not a social worker. I am in the service of Jesus and my job is to spread the word of Christianity and bring people to its fold,” states a report by The Indian Express.
But this is one time that the Saffron Brigade has bitten off more than it can chew. They should have foreseen this, but perhaps they were blinded by the bright shade of saffron, for Bhagwat’s statement has drawn worldwide ire against him. While a major section of the Twitter community has spewed rage against him, the Vatican too is up in arms against what Bhagwat said.
I worked wid Mother Teresa for a few months at Nirmal Hriday ashram in Kolkata. She was a noble soul. Pl spare her.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 24, 2015
What has the cultural organisation RSS has done besides rioting, creating communal divide and spreading hate ? #RSSQuestionsTeresa
— Whirling Dervesh (@WhirlingDervesh) February 23, 2015
Such narrowness of the minds and they claim to represent a great religion? #Shame #RSSQuestionsTeresa
— Arvind Jha (@jalajboy) February 23, 2015
#RSSQuestionsTeresa I am a BJP supporter but this is shameful.She got the Bharat Ratna for her work. @narendramodi Pls intervene
— rajat sikka (@rajatsikka) February 23, 2015
Hello Mohan Bhagwat ji..
even Nagpur is unhappy with #RSSQuestionsTeresa !
This shud speak volumes for u ! pic.twitter.com/WhAlRPTKRR
— कोमल 🙂 (@Komal_Indian) February 26, 2015
Ironically, Bhagwat’s statement comes a day after the Modi government was at pains to defend themselves against Obama on his statement about the religious situation in India. Obama had recently commented on India’s religious situation during a prayer breakfast meeting in Washington saying, “Michelle and I returned from India – an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity – but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs – acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.”
The Modi government responded by pointing out to Washington, the high rates of population growth among minority religions in the past six decades. The government was also at pains to impress upon the US government about India being a ‘liberal, plural and secular democracy’.
And yet barely a day after their defense, the RSS chief decides to shoot his mouth off and bring global wrath upon us. Obama’s comments have already worried the Indian bureaucracy because of India being placed by the US State Department and U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in 2014 under “Tier 2 category” of “countries of particular concern”, along with Afghanistan and Russia. The classification may get downgraded further in the 2015 report. With world media covering this news and an offended Vatican also issuing a statement in this regard, Bhagwat’s comments are likely to go unnoticed. And it will only serve to put India on thinner ice when it comes to religion.
Gone are the times when the Sangh Parivar was merely a hardliner outfit shouting from the sidelines. With BJP now being the ruling party, at a time when the world’s eyes are upon India, it is high time the BJP reined in the other members of its family. Because very frankly, Gandhi would be more shocked at Mother Teresa’s name taken in vain.
Nobody can prove whether Mother Teresa’s intentions were conversion or not. But she reached out to provide relief to many downtrodden and suffering groups that hardline Hindu outfits like these had cast away in the name of untouchability, like the lepers. But all that is still immaterial, since Mother Teresa is no longer around to even dispute these statements. At the end of the day, it is evident to everybody that it is the RSS whose intentions are conversion. Any attempts by the RSS to rouse the population with communally-coloured statements have backfired due to Mother Teresa’s popularity. There is only universal outrage now.
We hope that the RSS and its allies get the idea at least now and back off before they cause untold damage to India’s reputation on the world stage.
Image Courtesy: Reuters
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