A discussion on the upcoming
elections in India
was held at the Zigenbalg chapel yesterday from 8:50 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. The
resource persons Rev. Dr. David Selvaraj, the director of Visthar and Mr.Stephen David, Director of Centre for Contemporary Issues (CCI) did an initial
presentation which was followed by questions from the students and faculty
present.
Rev. Dr. David Selvaraj started his
presentation on “Modi as a phenomena” by quoting from the Talmud and saying
that “Who can and does not protest is an accomplice to the act.” He made three
points. The first one was that Narendra Modi was a Hindutva zealot and worker
of the RSS. He should therefore be seen as an embodiment of a certain kind of
nationalism. Rev. Selvaraj urged the community to remember Ayodhya, Godhra and
what happened in Karnataka as well. His second point was on Techno India and
Modi’s development paradigm. He reminded the listeners that Gujarat
had always been an entrepreneurial state and the development is not because of
Modi. What Modi has done is to open Gujarat to
the corporate sector and play out his version of corporate globalisation.
Finally Rev. David talked of the iron fisted governance of Modi and the
collapse of democratic governance. He concluded by asking the question as to
what all this meant to Christians.
Veteran
journalist Stephen David touched on the origins of the Indian National Congress and tried to draw a parallel with how Allan Octavian Hume and Arvind Kejriwal (AAP) founded their respective parties as a mark of protest against the
establishment. The DNA of all political parties are the same although the outer
shells vary, he added.
Contrary to
public perception organisations like the RSS have their sympathisers in major
political parties beyond the BJP. Politics, today, is about power, position and
money and not just service as we are made to believe. Electoral politics today
is a multi-crore PR exercise and the major parties have unleashed a huge PR drive. That includes Gujarat and its chief minister and BJP PM candidate too. India Inc especially seems to have thrown
its weight behind Modi because of his atleast perceived biz-friendly
politics.
The church or
the Christian community needs to embrace the Nazarene mission (Nazareth Manifesto), reaching out to a section of the society that is generally
neglected by the mainstream. There is a lot of hype about IT but IT is infotech
enabled services. Stephen David quoted one of India's top scientists telling him
in an interview that most of the youth are drawn away into these IT enabled
services companies seriously affecting the S&T pool. India's IT is
more about services than creating products, he said. David encouraged the
community to engage with the political process in the country. He felt that
people like Modi will come and go but we have to be part of the political
process so that people on the margins benefit. India's youth power, the
demographic dividend, will be a crucial factor in the coming decades.
Questions from
the students and faculty ranged from voting to televangelists and who was the lesser
evil in politics. There was a general consensus that the church should involve
itself more outside and get its hands dirty. Selvaraj quoted Pope Francis on
the "market of tyranny" and "economy of exclusion" and
urged the church to engage with the political process in the
country, and not just the 2014 electoral politics. He exhorted the audience to
look at 2019 as well and begin the process of engagement without much delay.
The session which was moderated
by Rev. Dr. David Joy included a welcome by Fr. Jerry Kurian and final
comments and vote of thanks by Rev. Dr. Evangeline Anderson Rajkumar.
JK
