Loving Rascal

The Buddha’s teachings on morality and the universality of suffering are admirable. I agree with him that suffering is universal. I also agree that our desires and expectations cause our individual sufferings. Buddha has a way to help people accept and cope with their individual pain. However, our desires are not the cause of all of the world's sufferings. Evil and injustices of the world –diseases, terrorism, crimes, rapes, murders, and accidents– also inflict much suffering. We might say we have the choice to reject the pain of suffering. Do we really agree that if we learn to ignore the effects of the suffering, the suffering will cease? It may become bearable, but it will still not cease. Individually, we would be left with the haunting, unanswered questions, “Why does suffering exist, and why did I, not some other person, have to endure it?”   My first point of disagreement is that, though Buddha admits the universality of suffering, he doesn't really explain or addres...

The UP police arrested a sexagenarian pastor and his son on Sunday “under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act.” [1] The pastors no allegedly luring Hindu women, promising them employment, money, and free education for their children. [2] They also offered household items. The pastors spoke offensively against Hindu deities and offered the complainer ₹ 1,100 to remain silent. [3]   The Pastors visited the village often and gave the villagers images of Jesus Christ to keep in their homes. They forced the villagers to attend Sunday services and rewarded financially those who brought people into the church. If they refused, the pastors threatened them with consequences, mentally tortured them, and as a result, some people even tried to die by suicide. [4] The police seized a publicity vehicle and recovered religious literature from it. [5] What do you think?   Honestly, it looks like the fabricated domestic abuse case my Christian wife’s adv...

Today, I wore a BJP cap normally. My local area councillor is a BJP, and we support him. I just boarded an auto rickshaw. The rickshaw driver, a good Muslim man, asked me out of curiosity, “What is this on your head?” I replied, smiling: “It is a cap.” I was not welding a gun or a sword. I carry a Bible in my heart and in my bag. However, I have never asked any good Muslims about the caps that they wear. And never asked it in a demeaning way, “What is on your head?” I write this to give you a perspective on how things look and how certain factions make them appear. We, Christians, should write to create communal harmony, not panic or disharmony.   The Catholic Connect did a piece on violence against Christians, alleging that the Bajrang Dal organised a rally with over 500 participants. It passed through a “Christian area” surrounding a Catholic church in Thandla, Jhabua district, on Christmas Day. No violence happened, but the catholic reporter states: They c...

Modiji's vision is to develop the infrastructure and institutions of Bharat at a rapid pace so that we won't have to go abroad for higher education, and foreigners will be interested in investing in our country. That is the main difference between the Congress party's socialism model and Modiji's development model. The Congress government never wanted to invest in Premium institutions. From 1947 to 2014, that is, for sixty years, we had only one AIIMS. Atal Bihari and the UPA approved six more colleges, but it never happened until Modiji came. Modiji introduced Digital India and gave farmers their subsidies directly into their accounts. Until then, the intermediaries ate up government grants to farmers, to the point that Rajeev Gandhi said: "If he sanctioned one rupee, only 15 paisa would reach the beneficiary." During the Congress party's rule, corruption was widespread. Nobody knows how much money these middlemen stole from government-sanct...

“Nobody respects a prophet in his hometown.” (Mark 6:4) Che-(q)ue-vara must have worked overnight to get the CPI(M) a Mayor in Calicut after five years of non-performance. The PM Taj road, Bashir road, and many other roads in the middle of the city need repair. There is no proper waste management throughout Calicut. Besides broken roads and pathetic footpaths that need repair, there is a need for urinals, parks, parking spaces, and foot overbridges. We need at least two flyovers on Mavoor Road to address Traffic jams during peak hours. The LDF government does not even have an action plan to build at least one. Or at least restrict private car entry between 9-11 am and 4-6 pm to manage traffic. The left promised us a metro, and delivered more potholes in main roads than before.   The mayor and deputies are clueless about people’s needs. Why do you want to become anything? Why don't you let those with a vision for development win? Your leaders ask us to hail the Hamas Terrorists ...

As I write this, we hear of violence against some Christian groups as they celebrate Christmas in Bharat. The BJP is not interested in violence against any minority religious community. If these are independent groups, the leaders need to correct them. Narendra Damodardas Modi ji has conquered Christian hearts today by attending a church in such a time as this. The Prime Minister and his team are welcoming minorities to participate in nation-building. Modiji himself went to a church today. That is the official view of the BJP. We celebrate and respect all faiths in Bharat. Modiji is holding a Bible. I hope it was gifted to him by the Church. I pray that Modiji will read the Bible when he finds time, beginning with Mark's gospel. I hope God will end the misunderstandings between Hindus and Christ-followers in Bharat. Jesus came to love and heal. He is a gentle God, not a violent tyrant. Modiji, a devotee of Maryada Purushottam King Ram, has no problem in admiring such a person. I pr...