Author: Balbir K. Punj
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 11, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=18186
Joseph Cooper's minority report
in The Indian Express, January 30, by Father Dominic Emmanuel is a malicious
travesty of truth. He contumaciously disregards the report of the National
Commission for Minorities and the extensive coverage in the Malayalam media
on this issue.
Non-bailable warrants were issued
by the Kerala police against all male members of ''Pastor'' Benson's family
in October 2002 for alleged sexual abuse and harassment of a Hindu OBC
girl, Laly, for four months in the Trivandandum Bible College, Thiruvananthapuram.
Laly worked as a home nurse in Convent
Hospital at Mallasseri near Pathanamthitta, Kerala, which belongs to Benson's
family. Subsequently, with the promise of a job in the US, Laly was taken
to Trivandandum Bible College, belonging to Rev. C.V. John, uncle of Benson's
wife Sally. Benson himself is neither a preacher nor a pastor, he worked
as a simple civil contractor for the college.
Before long, Laly realised that
she had been deceived. But somehow she managed to send an SOS to her brother,
who lodged a complaint with the police. The police raided the college and
rescued Laly, handing her over to her guardians.
As the Pathanamthitta police registered
a non-bailable case against Benson, his brothers and father, Rev. P.K.
Sam, went into hiding. Later, all excluding Benson, took anticipatory bail.
Benson remained in hiding. This news dominated the Malayalam media between
September and October 2002.
It provoked such an outrage that
the public ransacked the Covenant Hospital belonging to Benson's family.
Agitations compelled the Trivandrum Bible College to remain closed for
a few days.
After all these months, the fugitive
Benson dramatically resurfaced at the Gospel Convention near Koppam Harijan
Colony, Kilimanoor, Thiruvananthapuram on the night of January 13 last.
The American missionary Rev. Joseph Cooper is one of the financial sponsors
of Rev. P.K. Sam's work and was invited to speak at the function.
When the public saw the infamous
Benson and his family members along with the American missionary, they
were irked. The inflammatory remarks against Hindu gods only fomented their
fury. Rev. Cooper, who was in the company of Benson's family also face
the public's wrath.
He was admitted to a private hospital
with moderate injuries. Later, he was served a notice to leave India by
the Thiruvananthapuram rural district SP for violating provisions of the
tourist visa, in force since 1995, by speaking at a religious conference.
The ruling coalition in Kerala is
led by the ''secular'' Congress, with a Christian chief minister. Should
this not be considered the greatest bona fide of the Kerala Government's
decision?
Father Emmanuel has correctly reminded
us that Athithi Devo Bhava. India has practiced this motto since time immemorial.
The Jews, Syrian Christians, and Zoroastrians, persecuted in their own
lands, enjoyed a safe haven in India as well as ample breathing space to
practice their religions.
Hindus did not persecute Jews unlike
Father Emmanuel's co-religionists in Europe. But does it behove a guest
to disparage the beliefs of the host? Or can a guest act as a demon and
yet be treated as God? Does he expect the state to protect one's proselytising
activities? One who attacks others must not discount the possibility of
himself getting attacked.
One might also ask why they chose
the Harijan Basti, where most deprived people lived, for their convention.
Religion is not the priority of the empty- stomached, nor is conversion
an informed choice for them. Father Emmanuel has attempted an unintelligent
parallel by saying that ''hordes of Hindus freely preach and convert Americans
and Europeans''.
No doubt that several Hindu monk-orders/organisations
are active in the western world. But it is not that they ''freely preach
and convert'' people. The intelligence agencies keep a close watch on them.
France devotes an entire ministry for hunting down ''sects''. Bhagwan Rajneesh
(Osho) had to share prison rooms with hardened criminals in the US. His
followers allege that Osho was subjected to slow poison in the prison which
ultimately cost him his life.
Moreover, unlike Christianity, Hinduism
is not a proselytising religion. Hindus do not believe that Hinduism holds
a monopoly over truth and the world must submit to it. The Westerners who
practice Hinduism do it out of their personal interest in Indian philosophy
and yoga.
Their entry and exit are matters
of personal discretion. Hindu missionaries function amongst the well-fed
and well-read Westerners who run no risk of being converted through allurement,
fraudulence or force. In contrast, the Christian missionaries target the
weaker sections of the Indian society, trap them into parting with their
identity and soul for a loaf of bread.
It's a follow-up of the Vatican
policy to evangelise Asia in the third millennium AD on the lines of Europe
in the first and America in the second, to quote from the Pope's own declaration
in New Delhi, 1999. The Cooper episode only shows that where there is smoke,
there is also a fire.
(The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP
and convener of the BJP's think tank. Write to him at bpunj@email.com.)
