Father fixation

The fracas over the papal visit can be summed up only by an Americanism: enough already! Going by the state the Hindu groups have been reduced to, it is as though they are expecting a visitation rather than a visit. As though the mere presence of Il Papa on our hallowed soil will spark off a spate of indiscriminate, spontaneous and involuntary conversions, all twitching helplessly. John Paul II will be here for a synod, which is an internal, administrative conclave of the Church not very different in its aims from a corporate meeting in the secular world. He is very, very unlikely to stride through the land with the Bible in one hand and a sword in the other, as some people will have us imagine, proselytising urbis et orbis. It is a shame that the self-appointed custodians of the spirit of Hinduism have so little confidence in its future. It has withstood far more minatory threats than a near-octogenarian nursing Parkinson8217;s disease, a bad hip and a bullet wound.

The situation has become so hystericallybizarre that the BJP, which once reaffirmed its allegiance to the sangh parivar in every other breath, is now forced to distance itself from the Hindu undivided family. The Home Minister has had to decry the burning of the Pope8217;s effigy. Now that the sangh parivar is represented in office, it should appreciate that it no longer has to shout to be heard. Neither does it have to look for issues to puff up out of all proportion. They are right here at hand and if it is unequal to them, they will be cut to size along with their government in the months to come. The Hindu movement now has a stake in the running of the State and in steering the nation. It should be concentrating on other issues 8212; issues that are of national interest rather than the obsession of a petty interest group. But it seems to be caught fast in time, still obsessed with the religious card when, in reality, it has moved on to bigger things. Long ago, Murli Manohar Joshi showed in Srinagar that the sun had set on the age of yatra. Wonder whythe VHP is running one all over again.

The parivar should also realise that Christianity is now just another world religion. Proselytisation may once have been part of the colonial enterprise, but that was several hundred years ago when people were yet to distinguish clearly between the temporal and the secular spheres. There is no reason for Hinduism to repeat foreign history all over again by demonising the Pope. Again, there is little to be gained by extracting an apology from him for the religious excesses that his predecessors committed in the dim and distant past. And finally, none of the sangh parivar8217;s pronouncements redound to the credit of Indian tradition. There is little evidence of the spirit of acceptance that is indefatigably preached by all ambassadors of our culture. And little evidence, likewise, of the perennially evergreen case for guests to be equated with God. In fact, India finds itself disposed to be inhospitable even to one of God8217;s emissaries. One wonders who the VHP isembarrassing with its father fixation, poor, persecuted Il Papa or the nation whose cultural interests it claims to represent, which it is projecting to the rest of a world as one afflicted by a religious paranoia that went out of style a century ago.