Report of 5th Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture
13th January 2012
In the absence of any whatsoever definition or any pre-decided threshold percentage number, the 5 minority religions - Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Bouddha & Zorastrian - in India have been conferred too many benefits & legal protection, & thereby their institutions enjoy total freedom with no government control including that of not providing reservations for backward classes.
He brought the attention of audience to the likely funny situation that could prevail in the absence of any definition or proper policy, as the said religions could continue to enjoy special legal status & benefits even after exceeding the majority community in number. He further informed that recently as many as 35 universities have come up & unlike nowhere in the world, the Govt of India has established a separate ministry for monitoring the welfare of minorities & has given special coverage in the matters, like micro credit in the PM’s recent 15 point national program, whereas despite the atrocities in over last decade, the Hindus in Kashmir valley cannot get any protection under Minority Act in the very country. In our neighbouring countries, like Pakistan, Bangladesh & Afghanistan, he added to say that the Hindu culture is systematically being eradicated & Hindus in Pakistan have no right to vote unless any Hindu contest the election which is a very remote possibility,& that some Hindus in Pakistan had recently preyed to UNO’s body on human rights when neither their own govt nor India took any cognizance to their plight.
He stressed need to be alert & proactive, as Hindus are already minority, considering worldwide population of Christians &Muslims & therefore India needs to be led by men with spine to safeguard the welfare of Hindus any unapologetic view.
Given a consideration to increasing fundamentalism elsewhere in the Muslim world, he appealed to the minorities in India to take proper stand by not falling prey to the vote-bank politics & appeasing tactics so as to truly display to the world the true display of pluralistic nature of secular India to propagate the human values, like tolerance, mutual respect preached by Sanatan Dharma & advocated from time to time by great thinkers, like Laxmanrao Bhide.
