Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Play a fair game, Obama!' that was published in Newsband

Play a fair game, Obama!

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke about the shrinking religious tolerance in India. His statement has embarrassed the Narendra Modi government. Hindutva groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are also upset. Obama made this statement in spite of the fact that Modi has repeatedly claimed to have been guided by — first, the Constitution, and second, Gandhian ideals.

The two statements very clearly expose the ignorance of the US President Mr. Barack Obama and his team about matters pertaining to the true situation in India. In reality, Hindus have been too tolerant of the rampant proseyletising and conversions of Hindus under one pretext or another. The Church has been relentlessly proseyletising - overtly and covertly. Some Muslims have been openly talking about making India an Islamic nation either by force or by demographic imbalance. Hindus have a right to live and practice their religion and we are not ready to be reduced to living in settlements like the Red Indians in America or the aborigines in Australia (Tasmania).

Why Obama didn’t mention about Islamic extremism in India. Look at the medieval history of india, which is full of stories of barbarism and cruelties of rulers who forcibly converted Hindus into Islam, vandalized thousands of temples and massacred crores of hindus.

There was a big number of gullible Hindus converted to Christian by using financial incentives and Muslim by using force in the last 500 years. If Obama had some idea about such conversions, he would have understood where the problem lies. Obama is pressured by the Church to make such statements because their agenda of converting Hindus to Christian has been disrupted by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election victory. Also, if India's economy improves and pulls masses out of poverty, how will the Church convert gullible poor tribal by offering money?

If Obama cares to look objectively at the religious situation in India, he will find that nothing big change has occurred. There were conversions earlier, now also. Only difference is now Hindus have also become active like their counterparts in Muslims, Christians. Some bad statements are made by some Hindu individuals, are like earlier made by Muslims, and Christian individuals. By that itself sky is not going to fall. Indian culture is strong enough and secular enough.

Why President Obama did not criticize Saudi Arabia's intolerance of all other faiths. In Saudi Arabia no one can practice any religion other than Islam.  What about his allies in the gulf? They too are utterly communal. Why nobody even highlights the atrocities committed on Hindu minorities in Pakistan and other Muslim countries? It is high time Obama played a fair game.