Living with the mob

If you live in Sena land, you must live with its rules. One has watched Shiv Sainiks impose sundry bandhs in Mumbai and block the city146...

If you live in Sena land, you must live with its rules. One has watched Shiv Sainiks impose sundry bandhs in Mumbai and block the city8217;s lifeline8212;its trains8212;for hours and aggressively advance the cause of Mee Mumbaikar.

They did it again last week. And this time the Bhaktivedanta Hospital at Mira Road, a farflung suburb of Mumbai, was at the receiving end. TV channels flashed news of the hospital8217;s closure followed by acts of vandalism and threats. The hospital had management problems and some of the employees affiliated with the Shiv Sena decided to solve matters their way.

I live just ten minutes away from Bhaktivedanta, the only healthcare centre in the neighbourhood with modern facilities for over six lakh population of Mira Road. Not long ago, I took my wife to this International Society for Krishna Conscious ISKCON-run, temple-like hospital.

Surrounded by a green patch, its domes rising towards the sky and soft, soothing Krishna bhajans playing in its corridor, Bhaktivedanta felt more like a centre for holistic healing than a modern hospital. Almost every member of its staff spotted the mandatory tilak and patients were greeted with Hare Krishna by smiling Krishna bhakts who shuffled permanently in the hospital lobby.

A visit to it was like a spiritual journey. It beautifully blended a benevolent Krishna consciousness with mechanised modern medicare.

By forcing Bhaktivedanta to close, the Shiv Sainiks have not just sent a hospital out of operation. They hit the very principle of law and justice, a common tenet of all faiths and religious sects.

Two years ago, Shiv Sainiks had burnt down the Singhania Hospital in Thane because its doctors failed to save Sena leader Anand Dighe. The residents of Thane have lived without a good hospital in their locality ever since the Singhanias closed theirs.

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The Singhanias and the Krishna bhakts can never match the might of the Sainiks. Krishna bhakti can never triumph over Shiv Shakti. One is guided by fear of God and love for mankind. The other is an aggrieved army fired by fanatic dream of a homogenised society. The Sena claims to be striving for lokshahi democracy but unabashedly uses thokshahi mobocracy to redress its grievances. To Krishna bhakts, nirvana lies in karma. The Shiv Sainiks take force, intimidation and segregation as an article of faith.

This is dangerous for the health of democracy. Closing avenues of dialogues and taking law into one8217;s hands is one step short of anarchy. The army of hate has a history of consuming the very society it8217;s supposed to protect. Ask a poor Maharashtrian in Thane who cannot afford to admit his ailing mother to an upmarket hospital in South Mumbai. Ask the weeping patients of Bhaktivedanta who were wheeled out because the hospital couldn8217;t risk their lives. 8216;8216;This was not a hospital, it was a temple,8217;8217; said a shattered B.M. Mishra who regularly visited Bhaktivedanta for kidney dialysis.