QUESTION: India is facing a fire-storm over ruling party officials’ comments about Islam. What is your res-ponse?

ANSWER: As per the latest statistics, there are 831 million people living on the face of the earth. So many people living on a small planet like Earth is made possible through respectful coexistence. When calculated interventions are made to unsettle this value, reactions become heavy and relations get strained. The structures that hold us together as a world community are getting weaker by the day due to various reasons, and these kinds of comments do not help the situation at all. India was known for its tolerance, but now that is at stake.  It is unfortunate that with unbridled power in their hands, the ruling party spits out comments that disrespect people of other faiths. On the home front too, such attacks are made on minorities. It is painful that these things happen in the name of religions which stand for sacrifice and respect for one another. Who but the world’s poor pay the price for these kinds of comments!  It is quite unhealthy for a nation to spend much of its valuable time and energy on this “war of words” when that time could have been spent to uplift the desperately needy among us. Whatever the leader of a political party or its spokesperson says should represent the stand of the government and of the nation. When comments are made purely for political gain, it saddens the common per-son. Such comments weaken us. We should remember this age old saying: If it does not build another, do not utter it.

Bishop Sebastian Adayantharath
Mandya