Vinaash kaale vipreet budhee.
In a knee jerk reaction, UPA has given a ready to use weapon to all Right Wing groups and parties with the anti-superstition ordinance. With one single bill the government has isolated Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and all others!
According to these reformist – Dabholkar included – all religious rituals are superstitions. They can’t afford to be that radical and have been vocal only about some practices. But the bill has a wide canvas. Like DNA reports today, even describing something as ‘unlucky’ can get you a jail term and / or a fine of Rs 50,000. The practice of tying lemon and chillies to ward off and hundreds of similar practices can be termed superstitions.
Going a little further, the conclusion of almost all Hindu kathas – including Satyanarayan Ki Katha – is that if you leave the ritual of listening to a katha midway, without accepting the prasadam, calamity can strike you! So, all kathas spread superstitions!
I don’t know whether UPA government will raid the stalls outside Haji Ali Dargah for selling taaveez but according to this bill, every stall owner could be charged and penalised.
Similar ‘superstitions’ exist among Christians, Sikhs, Budhhists, Jains and all the other religious groups.
These rituals and practices have always existed in all societies. Whenever any dictator or dictatorial government has used state powers against them, these practices have gone underground.
There are many Dabholkars who consider God a superstition. And praying at the feet of peepal tree or visiting a temple before an examination or an interview too would fall under the same law.
This is perhaps for the first time in the world – as an English daily from Mumbai DNA crows – that such an ordinance has been proclaimed.
This ordinance, along with an entrance examination and licence for journalists (and describing every piece of writing including a letter to the editor, tweet, post on any social networking site, blog as journalistic activity), diluting RTI and weakening the bill to protect whistle blowers….
Ugh!
Gandhiji, who died with ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips would be turning in his grave – not that he was buried – but had he been alive, would have cringed at the thought of Khomeini
type of rulers who live by draconian bills!
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