Oh, shut up, Leo!

A few days ago, came the damning headlines in THE HINDU - The USCIRF places India on Watch list. We also had a news item that India "regretted" this.

This would be the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, no less. It sounds like an organization that should send shivers down our spines if we flouted any religious freedoms. At the very least, it tickles mine.

>>>>"It is extremely disappointing that India, which has a multitude of religious communities, has done so little to protect and bring justice to its religious minorities under siege," said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair. "USCIRF's India chapter was released this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the anti-Christian violence in Orissa."<<<<

This definitely sounds as if religious minorities in India are scurrying for cover. "It's a siege!" no less. It sounds like we're refusing admission to Christian children in our schools, refusing to admit Muslim patients in our hospitals, and there's mayhem on the streets with women being raped and communities being pillaged. Sorry, none of that is happening, and we have an Italian catholic woman as the head of the most powerful political party in the country, a Sikh Prime Minister, and a woman President who just followed a Muslim president.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan, described as an "international icon" by US diplomats earlier today, was harassed and detained at the Newark airport just because his last name was Khan. It took the Indian Consulate to vouch for him, before he was let go so he could be part of the Indian Independence Day celebrations in the USA. I hope this makes SRK think twice before he declares himself the biggest movie star in the world the next time, but he has, as unwittingly as some of his movies have become successes, helped highlight something of importance.

For a diplomatically sophomoric, adolescent country like the USA to be giving advice to a country like India, particularly on the subject of religion and freedom is a bit like an opportunistic hyena telling a tigress how she should bring up her cubs.

The Chairman of the USCIRF is a conservative Christian, appointed by the wisdom of GW Bush. That in itself should suffice to dismiss him from any position of international import. Forgiving that flaw would be easy compared to the 600,000 Iraqis killed in the name of "freedom" by the US military.

The USCIRF describes itself thus - "USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress."

Sounds like without such a lengthy declaration, we'd arrive at the truth – "the USCIRF is an organization headed by a conservative Christian appointed by a born again Christian, to collect data, filter out the reasons for but highlight violence against Christians, and present such information through diplomatic channels so as to cause embarrassment to other nations."

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India has put out this news of India being "watched" on their website like it is some kind of vindication of India's collective stance on their religion, while making no attempt to provide their perspective on the truth of the incidents that have invited this kind of attention.

The Chairman of the USCIRF, Leonard Leo, stands for abolishing abortion. In other words, he believes women should lose their freedom to abort their unwanted pregnancies. If given a chance, he would wreak havoc on India with his conservative Christian beliefs, leading to the abolition of scientific theories about evolution, and eventually conclude to every mind in India that Christianity is the only way. This is his first sneak attack on India, and he deserves being served notice.

India exists as a multicultural, multi ethnic, and multi religious society precisely because of its secular and essentially very Hindu inclusive tradition. This doesn't have anything to do with religion. And yet, Hindus are the reason India is secular. Without the enormously evolved presence of Hindus, Christians and Muslims would have killed each other to take over this abundant land.

India has not occupied another country, not caused war, death and destruction of other peoples, and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, like the USA. It is a blatant insult to India to even be mentioned in some arbitrary fashion about religious freedom, especially when it comes from a conservative Christian think tank in the USA, who are all thriving on the history of destroying an entire culture of Native Americans.

The Spanish Inquisition has taken more lives than many wars have – in the name of religion. Where was the USCIRF then? All of a sudden, it is fashionable to use the Obama administration's diplomatic clout to make an attempt, however feeble, at providing some kind of protection to Christian movements in India with dubious credentials when it comes to secular activities.

The people of the USA themselves do not take kindly to proselytizing and by and large, believe in religion being a personal thing. Indians have that sort of outlook too. When Christian groups come to India and try to take advantage of the economically challenged to further a religious agenda of recruitment, it is bound to anger some people. By no means does Hinduism condone acts of violence in the name of religion, but Hindus, who have never been baptized into any religion, by the way, do not take kindly to the whole philosophy behind religious conversion through persuasion.

In this context, it is high time secular India told adolescent USA to keep its inept comments and opinions on religious freedom to itself. We'd run out of names for watch lists if we were to return the compliment to the USA.