The RSS and its various sister organisations, including the BJP, are busy promoting cultural nationalism and teaching the world about tolerant Indian traditions, one of which speaks of Athithi Devo Bhave (A guest is like God). True to that, the RSS cadres in Kerala ‘‘honoured’’ the American guest Joseph Cooper for ‘‘preaching’’ Christianity. The RSS has denied any hand in the attack on Cooper. John Joseph of the National Minorities Commission, ever so eager to prove his loyalty to the RSS, hastened to give a different twist to the incident by putting the blame on the ‘‘unethical’’ past of Pastor Benson, Cooper’s host in India. To add insult to injury, the Kerala police served a deportation order to Cooper. Even as the Home Ministry was backing the decision of the Kerala police, Home Minister L. K. Advani was preaching to the Emir at Qatar about ‘‘every person living in Qatar having the right to freedom of worship, right to freedom of religion’’ and that it was ‘‘an important issue which went beyond all this security and terrorism’’ and was the ‘‘hallmark of civilisation’’. Since nobody in Qatar appears to have heard of Athithi Devo Bhave, they did not ask Advani to preach the same thoughts to the RSS and VHP back home. Visas to foreign nationals are usually granted under bilateral agreements with an understanding that the host country also reciprocates similar provisions. Hordes of Indians, especially from the RSS and VHP, freely preach and convert Americans and Europeans. Neither the Americans nor their police, and certainly not the country’s Home Department, question them. And several converted foreigners can be found all over the temples and ashrams in India, preaching Hinduism to all and sundry. Nobody questions them — let alone beats them up — either. When the scientist-turned-minister Murli Manohar Joshi introduced courses like ‘Karmakanda’ and ‘Purohitya’ in our universities, the stated purpose was to ‘‘ensure the availability of trained priests to perform religious duties here and abroad’’. They didn’t face any visa restrictions. Why then does the Indian government put restrictions on Christian priests or nuns visiting India? How is it that foreign governments don’t raise this issue with the Indian government? The self-appointed champions of cultural nationalism should know that Emperor Ashoka sent missionaries abroad to spread Buddhism. His son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra went to Ceylon as missionaries in the third century BC. The fundamental rights, according to the constitution, are available to both citizens and non-citizens. Articles 25 to 28 on freedom of religion are rights available to citizens and non-citizens. Constitutionally, the right to propagate religion is part of the freedom of religion, and this too is not restricted to Indian citizens. Clearly, the 1995 government circular restricting visitors the permission to practice their religion in India is unconstitutional. The first time foreign missionaries were rejected visas was in 1952. Justice Mukherjee of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, however, in his historic 1954 judgment in the case of Ratilal Panchand Vs State of Bombay, wrote: ‘‘Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees to every person and not merely to the citizens of India, the freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.’’ Later in 1955, under pressure from the Hindu Mahasabha, the Centre issued a policy statement on admission to foreign missionaries. The Foreigners Act of 1956 finally barred missionaries from entering the country; thus missionaries or nuns can enter the country only on tourist visas. The government that restricts religious preaching in India (read minority religions) without anticipating any reciprocal action from Western countries against its own nationals, does, however, invite multinationals that could cause communal tension. Did the government refuse visas to McDonald’s, whose outlets have been attacked by Hindutva groups? Those still trying to resist the Hindutva ideology of Savarkar and Golwalkar should wake up to realise that we are living in a Hindu Rashtra where rules for minorities are different to those belonging to the majority. (The writer is the Director, Communication and Information Bureau, Archdiocese of Delhi)
