Thursday 29 August 2013

Thought of the day: We the land of Asarams:

Dear Readers,

We all know that in India , there is this  Godmen syndrome. A sense of blind belief , or a mass hysteria spread around an ascetic who is normally addressed as  Baba or a Sadu  . Among such innumerable characters both dead and living  , few were  indeed pious and philanthropic and  set up schools, colleges and hospitals , delivered lectures on Hindu scriptures and benefited  a large section of the population. 

''Sadhuism" as I will call it is  great business . A Baba  with millions of followers is a force indeed. Armed with  oratory skills  and   ability to win mass followers, they  attracts money and power and eventually  rise to be  a CEO of a multi million charitable organization. But as long as they preach peace and the society benefits , I don't see any wrong doing . As  a society we need religious preachers with a positive impact on our lives . But the tragedy today  is  on the  emergence of black sheeps  among those herds of religious preachers. Many of them have come to prominence by their  claim of curing diseases through some mass placebo effect or by propagating some variant of yogic exercises or religious mass games . The strategy is by conducting  religious congregations called satsangs  which increases popularity and resultant cash flows . Behind the veil of religiosity,  these fraudsters indulge in unlawful activities  be it money laundering, land grabbing or sheer sexual voyeurism, all with candid support of the vested interests.
The question here is , If such religious fraudsters  emerge what is the check and balance  . It is here we fail as a state. Among the many such instances that are reported , the recent episode of child abuse,  against a popular saint in western India named Asaram babu is a case in point. This seemingly eccentric saint is alleged to have acted like a pedophile with the police behind him now, but cautious enough,  fearing political backlash of losing his million plus follower's votes in an election year. This babu is notorious to have been in the law makers records for all reasons ranging from land grabbing to mysterious deaths . But ever since ten days of framing allegations against him, the police till this time has not arrested him. This is the pathetic state of our criminal delivery system. The high and the mighty, the sadhu and politicians are always above law. 

The thought here is '' where do we take this discourse further? . How do we as a society check this evangelical malice ? 

 Sanyasi