Moral Terror Turns Ganesha into Elephant!

This is the story of Lord Ganesha beautifully depicted on a kite, his unavoidable loss of face enforced by the moral policing Hindutva Brigade, who, ironically, claimed to protect his image.

Months ago, I had written about the beautifully designed kite depicting Lord Ganesha having been forced out of the sky by the moral policing HIndutva Brigade. The kite with the most lovable visage of Ganesha was painstakingly crafted by the artists of Team Mangalore using the best of cloth and materials, many of which were imported. The moral terrorists who claimed to uphold the ‘dignity’ of Hindu gods and goddesses objected to the trial flight of the kite. Although they did not have any clear answers to how the flying of a kite, prepared with all the love, care and reverence by god fearing Hindus, would insult the dignity of Ganesha, its trial had to be abandoned in the face of the terror tactics of these self proclaimed defenders of Hindu religion and culture. Even Lord Ganesha could not defend himself and had to beat a retreat into the shed.

The Moral terrorists could tie the hands of the artists and kite flyers, but can creativity be cowed down by brute force? The pained artists redesigned the kite. The half broken tusk of Ganesha was replaced with a full one. Ganesha turned into Gajaraja, the elephant. And the kite was hoisted to the skies of Ahmedabad during the International Kite Festival. It won wide applause and also an award, presented by none other than the chief minister Narendra Modi, the icon of the Hindutva brigade!

It is not clear whether the artists of Team Mangalore were happy. It is also not known whether the people of Gujarat or their chief minister were aware of the preceding events in Mangalore that involved the moral terrorists. The fact remained that the most respected and loved image of Lord Ganesha had to be sacrificed to fulfill the foolish demands of the moral police whose claim, ironically, was to defend it.

This episode is just one of the many examples of the counter productive and destructive results of the foolish ideology of Hindutva and the terror tactics that emanate from it. If even after 17 years, Lord Ram has to remain confined in the make shift temple at Ayodhya, what else can be the fate of Hindu Dharma or Hindu Culture or anything else that these morally and ethically bankrupt bigots claim to defend?

Aravind Adiga's Gesture: A Rebuff To Hindutva Forces!

Aravind Adiga, the winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2008 for his first literary work The White Tiger, has donated almost one third of the Prize money to his alma mater, St. Aloysius High School in Mangalore. [1, 2, 3, 4]

In his own words:
"I have donated a part of my prize money for winning the Man Booker Prize for 2008 to my old school, St. Aloysius College of Mangalore, in gratitude for the fine education I received there. I wish to donate the money in the name of the late Father Victor D'Souza, a great teacher of physics and chemistry, who also always reminded his students of their responsibility to help and defend the poor and underprivileged. St. Aloysius is one of the gems of Mangalore and I hope it will continue to shine brightly in the years to come, as it has done for over 100 years. Lucet et Ardet." [See]

In my view, this is a fitting rebuff to the Sangh Parivar that has been harping about the role of Christian management schools in the conversion of students to Christianity. The activists of the Sangh Parivar had staged protest demonstrations in front of many christian schools, including St. Aloysius College just a few weeks ago and had threatened that they would launch a mass movement urging Hindus to boycott christian institutions. I also remember the occasion when a former MLA belonging to the Sangh Parivar had tried to tell me how St. Aloysius College was in the forefront of attempting conversions, only to be rebuffed by me that most freedom fighters from this place were the students of the same school and had no problem what so ever in pursuing their education, even after being arrested by the British Police. So this gesture of Aravind is a fitting rebuff, vividly illustrating how the school had helped in shaping his personality, inculcating the highest moral values.

It would be interesting to see how the Hindutva Brigade would react to this!