‘We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured,’ said Joseph Biden, the new president of the United States. He had every reason to say so. His predecessor, Donald Trump, had made 30,573 false or misleading claims as president. Nearly half came in his final year. “Over time, Trump unleashed his falsehoods with increasing frequency and ferocity, often by the scores in a single campaign speech or tweetstorm. What began as a relative trickle of misrepresentations, including 10 on his first day and five on the second, built into a torrent through Trump’s final days as he frenetically spread wild theories that the coronavirus pandemic would disappear “like a miracle” and that the presidential election had been stolen — the claim that inspired Trump supporters to attack Congress on Jan. 6 and prompted his second impeachment.’ (Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post 24.01.2021). The irony of it all, 74 million Americans believed Trump and voted for him. And we know the US is no mean country. It claims to be a great nation. Two centuries of democracy, almost totally literate people and the richest country in the world. Why would so many Americans believe in the false claims of Trump? Reality is no different in other countries across the globe. In every country, political leaders (and leaders in other domains too) lie at will and people soak them in. So the crucial ques
For any organization, movement or institution, the passing away of its founder is a jolting moment yet graced with gratitude for the vision transmitted and realized in the course of its trajectory. The members of the Indian Theological Association (ITA) share these sentiments at the demise of Rev. Fr Constantine Manalel, CMI, its founder and guide on the path of its significant growth. “The ITA came into existence because of the creative action of this great visionary” says its former president Jacob Parappally MSFS. “Fr Constantine challenged theologians to dialogue with the religious, social, cultural, economic and political contexts of our country while theologizing.” The launching story of Indian Theological Association has been recorded by Kuncheria Pathil, CMI as follows: ‘In the post-Vatican II scenario, it was Rev. Joseph Constantine Manalel who proposed the idea of forming an association of Indian theologians. In 1971 he had already published a theology journal, named Jeevadhara in two editions, English and Malayalam, for which he had formed a society, called, “Jeevadhara Theological Society.’ On August 28, 1975, he convened a meeting of the above society where for the first time he proposed the idea of forming an all India association of Indian theologians. The period after Vatican II was, indeed, an extraordinary spring time for the Church in India. After elaborate preparations the “Church in
It is 72 years since India promulgated its secular-democratic constitution. The nation observed the anniversary on Jan. 26, just as in previous years, with a military parade in New Delhi. But an uneasy disquiet continues across the country. Over the years, the parade added cultural tableaux from its provinces. Uttar Pradesh state’s cultural tableau this year displayed the model of the Ram temple being built in Ayodhya town at a spot where an ancient mosque stood until 1992 when Hindu radicals demolished it. The temple has political connotations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has vowed to turn India into a nation of Hindu hegemony. The pro-Hindu party came to the national mainstream promising the temple in Ayodhya, their Hindu Lord Ram’s birthplace. Almost three decades after the demolition of the mosque, a major BJP promise is getting fulfilled. The government proudly displayed it at the parade celebrating the anniversary of the nation’s secular constitution. That’s the growth of Indian democracy! True to the character of any democracy, there is a paradox in India’s polity today. While the Modi government returned to power in 2019 with an enhanced mandate and his BJP winning provincial polls, the country is gradually turning into a grieving and protesting nation. Get it Now Are common people really happy under the Modi administration? Various sections of people, including religious minorities and farmers and teachers i
We observe Minority Rights on December 18. It is time we critically examined how India empowers and protects the rights of minorities. There is no internationally agreed definition as to which groups constitute minorities. Francesco Capotorti, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in 1977 defined a minority community as a group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a country. They could possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from the rest of the population. They could also show a sense of solidarity to preserve their culture, traditions, religion or language. In 1992, the United Nations adopted this definition based on national or ethnic, cultural, religious identity. The international body expects the States to protect the minority communities.Minority Rights in India According to India’s latest census taken in 2011, minorities in the country are about 19.3 percent of the total population — Muslims 14.23 percent, Christians 2.3, Sikhs 1.72, Buddhists 0.7, Jains 0.37, and others such as Parsi and Jews 0.6. Except Hindus, the rest communities have been identified as minority communities. The government of India established National Minorities Commission in 1978 because, “despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution and the laws