Current Events
It’s Official.
Stupidity Is Now The State Policy Of My Country
GIRISH K N YADAV
New Delhi, India
Just so you know and don‘t start foaming in the mouth, I’m not anti-Hindu.
I’m merely anti-stupidity.
Here’s my gripe of the day on the latest moronic behaviour coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office and from his coterie of village idiots.
BJP MP Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday, June 9, 2015, proclaimed that all those opposed to the Surya Namaskar (the Hindu ritual of worshipping the Sun) at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's yoga event later this month should leave India and have no right to use the sun.
This is exactly why many faith groups, including my own faith, Buddhism, as well as the Sikh Religion, and a string of belief systems covering a majority of the globe, are wary of yoga because of the Hindu fanaticism around it, identifying it as a central Hindu practice.
"Those who do not want yoga should leave India's land. They have no right to use the sunlight anymore," the extremist Hindu politician, known for his trade-mark offensive remarks, said at an event in Gorakhpur, his parliamentary constituency located in the Hindu belt.
"Those who do not subscribe to Surya Namaskar should sink in the sea or live in a dark room," spewed silly old Mr Adityanath.
If I recall my readings correctly, didn’t Guru Nanak stand on the bank of the Ganges in Hardwar and declare the vacuity of worshiping the Sun while those closer to home -- in our case, hundreds of millions of our fellow Indians -- are begging and starving for our urgent attention?
However, I also know that a BJP/RSS mob has recently taken over the gurdwara complex in Hardwar which for centuries marked Guru Nanak’s seminal visit there, and now enjoy state protection in refusing to return it to the rightful owners, the Sikhs.
Doesn’t change a thing. Sikhs still will not worship the Sun.
And all power to them.
Just as all power to Hindus for worshiping the Sun, or whatever -- but a caveat: only as long as you do it in your own mileu, and don’t shove it down other peoples’ throats.
I recall the story of when someone asked his fellow-passenger in a train compartment if he would mind if he smoked a cigarette.
“Not at all,” said the good man, “why should I mind? It’s y-o-u-r mouth, mister, you can put shit in it if you want to. Just you make sure you don’t let your shit pollute my airspace, that’s all …”
The same principle applies to religious practices, no matter how pure, lofty or central they are to any one.
On Monday, June 8, 2015, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) launched a campaign against the government's move to make yoga and Surya Namaskar compulsory in schools across the country. The decision was taken in a meeting of the executive committee of the board which decided to constitute a committee -- Majlis-e-Amal -- to look into this particular matter and other issues related to 'taleem' (education) and if need be approach the Supreme Court against the move.
AIMPLB spokesman Maulana Abdul Raheem Qureshi said that such moves by the Modi government were sowing the seed of insecurity among minorities, specially Muslims.
"Whatever is unfolding is not good for the secular fabric of the country and Modi should realise that he is the prime minister of India and not that of RSS," he said.
Though I personally have converted to Buddhism ages ago and certainly do not subscribe to sun-worship or any of the multitudinous deities that populate Hindu practice.
But I respect the right of Hindus to practice their faith in every which way they choose to do so.
What I object with all of my heart and soul is the attempt by Hindu extremists and fundamentalists to impose their beliefs, practices and rituals on those of other faiths.
That, in my view is sheer S-T-U-P-I-D-I-T-Y, and will not hold water for any length of time. You pursue it, Mr Modi, and you’ll guarantee that it is the first nail in the coffin of Hindutva as you know it today; you’ll leave it diminished and trivialized.
In December last year, in what has been hailed by cheerleaders as a ‘major diplomatic victory’ for India, the United Nations adopted June 21 as the International Yoga Day with over 175 nations supporting Modi's proposal.
Didn’t impress nobody. Doesn’t fool nobody.
If you’re out there throwing money around like a country bumpkin, buying widgets left and right with no rhyme or reason, the vendors will willingly repeat anything you want to say. Forget yoga and sun worship; you can even get them to proclaim at the top of their voices that the sun rises in the West, not the East.
In fact, I assure you, it just might do so, if you carry on these sheningans.
I know that Modi will lead a huge event at New Delhi's Rajpath on June 21 which is expected to be attended by over 40,000 people bused in from the countryside.
Doesn’t impress nobody. Doesn’t fool nobody.
Just remember how many zombies Hitler was able to collect for his Nuremberg rallies.
It didn’t get him nowhere, did it?
Don’t you forget this, Mr Modi: Religious persecution and oppression only lead to one place ...
[Based on news report by India Today]
June 9, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Kiran Kaur (New Delhi, India), June 09, 2015, 9:52 AM.
These fundamentalist nuts are clever, though bereft of the slightest trace of wisdom. They are fast and quick, though, with their clevernesses. One of the jokers said the other day: "If yoga is Hindu, then Gravity is Christian." Clever, yes, but holds no water. No Christians anywhere, not even in Christian countries, force the rules of gravity as religious dogma on any one, leave alone on other faiths. Moreover, comparing or equating yoga with Gravity, a law of Nature, is like confusing Tarot cards or palmistry with Science. A few centuries ago, Christians did impose the Inquisition, and caused a lot of grief to a lot of people. So, is India going to go through a Hindu Inquisition? Will the world wait till they become a public menace like the Al Qaeda, the Taliban or the ISIS, before it will take notice and do something about these latest vermin crawling out of the floorboards?
2: Jake Kerwin (Baltimore, Maryland, USA), June 09, 2015, 10:08 AM.
I thought the universal Indian practice of defecating in the fields, under the open sky, daily at sunrise and sunset, was already a Hindu ritual of sun-worship. Is there more to it?
3: Harsaran Singh (Indonesia), June 09, 2015, 10:18 AM.
Yoga per se has no wrongs, just as no other form of physical exercise is bad. What is objectionable is the religious colour given to this set of physical exercises meant for health and relaxation. The RSS which presently calls the shots in India's governing structure has been busy since the BJP took power in Delhi. They are trying to communalize each and every aspect of Indian life in one way or the other. Some of their attempts to impose the Hindutva agenda are: compulsory use of Hindi in all official correspondence (and India wants to become a global power by 2020!) but after the southern states went up in arms, the idea was quietly dropped. Then they attempted to forego the Christmas holiday by naming December 25 as Good Governance Day. Again, they had to bite dust after large-scale protests by the christians. They succeeded in banning beef but ironically this they have done in a relatively Muslim majority Maharashtra whereas in Goa where they are in power they ignored this diktat. Then came a couple of attempts on the Sikh community, first it was the Hardwar Gurdwara incident and then the direct RSS interference in the functioning of Takht Hazur Sahib management. Overall, repeated attempts are being made by the "Sangh Parivar" to antagonize and subjugate the minorities. Politically they have cultivated some key figures amongst the minority groups whom they showcase as the representatives of their faith, at the same time working on their secret agendas. God only knows what is in store for millions of souls who call this country their home.
4: Indira Bhardwaj (Kanpur, India), June 09, 2015, 10:23 AM.
Not just this year -- EVERY YEAR! -- thousands die of sun-stroke here in India. And the government does absolutely N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Not enough sun-worship, you say? Maybe Mr Modi's Surya Namaskar will help. What a brilliant solution! They did say that Modi was going to bring in innovative solutions to all the problems that are killing us. I'm not holding my breath, though, yoga or no yoga!
5: Gurjender Singh (Maryland, USA), June 09, 2015, 12:02 PM.
After all these developments, our own Sikh body SGPC continues to support the BJP govt, because the SGPC propped Akalis stay in power propped by the BJP. We should demand that the SGPC stand on Sikh principles and Gurus' teachings and steer Sikhs away from these practices which are clearly not for Sikhs.
6: R.S. Minhas (Millburn, New Jersey, USA), June 09, 2015, 1:28 PM.
BJP MP Adityanath should not be allowed to be in the shade after his surya namaskar.
7: Kanwarjeet Singh (USA), June 09, 2015, 7:20 PM.
Now? Hindustan has been stupid for 2000+ years. Now is just a new flavor of this stupidity.
8: Rup Singh (Canada), June 09, 2015, 8:31 PM.
'adho mukha shvanasana' - downward facing dog pose. If I don't do this, would that mean I have no right to keep a dog? If I don't worship a cow, no right to milk? What makes it even worse is that members of the government are making these stupid comments. They should also acknowledge that India is neither secular nor a democracy, but that would require honesty.
9: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), June 09, 2015, 10:42 PM.
Yoga is a money making racket dreamt up by Indian charlatan 'godmen' to make quick and easy money by deluding gullible and foolish foreigners to part with their cash. Walking is the perfect human activity and completely using the natural motions and all the organs of the human body.
10: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), June 10, 2015, 4:03 PM.
@9 Baldev Singh: You hit the nail on the head. You can pretty much assume that any religious tradition of the Hindus, regardless of its age, is ultimately rooted in the Brahmin trying to swindle the peasant.
11: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), June 11, 2015, 5:12 AM.
Gurbani says: "If a hundred moons were to rise, and a thousand suns appeared, even with such light there would be pitch darkness without the One" [GGS:463.10]. Guru Nanak further goes on to say: "In the platter of the sky, the sun and moon are mere lamps, the stars are but pearls in the constellation" [GGS:13.1]. How many suns does the Milky Way galaxy have? Ask the moronic BJP MP to go and first count before issuing an edict to ban the use of the sun to all who refuse to join in the silliness. We need not pay any attention to this fool.
12: Purnima (Chennai, India), June 12, 2015, 7:52 AM.
If only they used this time to develop India economically. Sigh!