In the run-up to the 2019 general elections, Union Home Minister and BJP’s top leader Amit Shah had made an outrageous comment: The BJP will rule the country for the next 50 years. No leader who believes in democracy and people’s power to elect or reject a party or candidate could have made such a remark. It betrayed dynastic and fascist traits and tendencies embedded in one’s thought process. Not even the tallest leaders of independent India have ever made such an undemocratic remark. It is an affront to the people, the electorate, who are at the centre and core of democracy. The results of the just-concluded general elections have given an unequivocal answer to Amit Shah as the BJP on its own could not muster enough seats to form the government.The results have come as a slap on the face of the BJP and its top leaders for taking the electorate for granted. It substantiates the old cliché “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The arrogance of its top leaders has made them fall into a pit that they were trying to dig for others by hate-speeches and outright lies. The BJP which came out with slogans like ‘crossing 370-mark for the party and 400-mark for the NDA’ has fallen terribly short of even winning a simple majority for itself in Lok Sabha. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the party to defeat, unlike the previous two occasions, winning only 240 seats, failing to cross the 272-mark. Now it will have to run the governme
Animals live at the sense level. Satisfaction of the senses is their goal. They are led by instincts and impulses. Humans have, besides all the senses, intelligence and freedom. They should respond to the senses but must not be led by them. Rather, they should think and find out what is the best and choose that. That is why man is defined as a rational animal. In man there is something finer than the senses and reason. We call it the spiritual. Teilhard de Chardin, scientist and mystic, very perceptively said ‘man is a spirit living in a body’. The spiritual is an openness to the beyond, the supernatural, like, God, human soul, life after death. It is the realm of faith.In life man has to take decisions. Decisions should be based on good reason and faith. The faith of the Jews is expressed in the Old Testament. Being a Jew, Jesus knew the faith, the spiritual and religious convictions and practices of the Jews. But, being a discerning Jew, Jesus did not accept much of the Jewish religion. Like the Jews, Jesus believed that there is only one God who is the creator and law giver. For the Jews, God was mainly a warrior God, ‘Lord of hosts’ or ‘Yahweh’, a mystery. But for Jesus, God is Abba, his (and everybody’s) most loving father. Everyone is God’s beloved son or daughter, that is, all are brothers and sisters. Jesus summarized the hundreds of commandments of the Jews into one, that is, unconditional and total love for the other.Christians are those who
This is indeed a strange title. It is borrowed from the Vatican II document “The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World”. Let me quote it. “The Church admits that she greatly profited and still profits from the antagonism of those who oppose or persecute her” (GS 44).Perhaps “benefit” would have been a better choice of word than profit. Let’s not quibble over words and get to the point. What do we understand by persecution? Is it good or bad for us?I would first distinguish between persecution, harassment and isolated instances. Persecution means a planned programme against a particular community, especially by those in power. Harassment is the use of various government agencies to hound a community and make life miserable for them. Perhaps the most harassment of Christians is in the North East, especially Assam.... Let us now ask ourselves a few questions. Is persecution a virtue to be glorified? What do the Bible and Vatican II say about persecution? The first question is indeed a conundrum, with no clear answer; but as we move forward we may find some light at the end of the tunnel.In the NT the word persecute is used 10 times and persecution 14 times and martyr just once (Rev 17:6). Persecution seems integral to profession of the Christian faith. It is portrayed as a blessing (Mat 5:11). We are told that we will be persecuted (Mat 23:34, Lk 21:12, Jn 15:20). We must be prepared for this (Mat 10:16, 24:9, Mk 10:30, 13:9, Lk 21
Covid-19 pandemic is done and dusted. Seemingly. Though massive killer waves of the viral infection triggered by mutants seem to have abated, stray cases of the viral respiratory infection are still being reported, with negligible mortality though. ‘A cluster of highly infectious respiratory infection with high mortality’ was reported in China’s Wuhan Province in December 2019. Soon this strange infection, which the WHO baptized ‘Covid-19’, crossed the Great Wall, taking the world by storm. WHO declared it a pandemic. 704,753,890 were infected. 7,010,681 perished globally, as per statistics updated by WHO on April 13 this year. The wily virus which had scant respect for personalities, geographical regions, economic and military might of nations, colour and faith had the medical world scurrying to explore prevention and treatment. As treatment modalities emerged by fits and start mankind continued to be infected. Many perished falling to viral mutants that caused waves of the deadly infection. Livelihood and economies were wrecked. Clueless governments attempted to keep the virus away from citizens through lockdowns and the SMS protocol. Physicians considered prevention using vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the viral villain more fruitful than treatment. But, the gestation time for a vaccine to be developed and authorized for human use after mandatory phase III trials is 10 years. Governments could not wait for 10 years for vaccines when citizens were succumbing in
India is in the middle of a highly decisive election because many political observers are of the view that the future of Indian democracy hinges on the result of this election. To a democracy, periodic free and fair elections are like the soul to a human body. Elections once in five years are the most effective means to make the ruling party accountable to the people. It is an opportunity for the people to throw away the party in power, if they are not satisfied with the performance of the party. In a genuine and functioning democracy, there are many ways and means to make the ruling party transparent, accountable and participatory. A few of them are the law-making process, accountability to the parliament through question answer sessions, the process of passing the annual budget, censuring government through non-confidence motion, and criticism through the media, which is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy. Above an independent judiciary is there as a watchdog. Despite having many checks and balances to make the government accountable to the people, there is always a possibility of a democracy slipping into dictatorship. It happened in many countries in the past like Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini. At present Russia is practically under dictatorship. Many Indians as well as some foreign observers fear that if the ruling BJP comes to power the third time, India will have only a name-sake democracy. Although the majority of the Church leaders are