We Indians love controversies. Some are very lively and keep everyone busy airing their views on the subject and making endless speeches and stalling the proceedings in the Parliament, wasting the tax-payer’s money. No side will concede and the show goes on for days and weeks. The present one comes from the very unlikely quarter, from Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, who is a Junior Minister in PM Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. She claims to be a self-proclaimed Sant or Saint. We have many who belong to this clan who claim to be Sants. But are they Godmen or conmen?
Have we not heard of a Godman who had an army of followers in his ashram and the Government spent crores of public money to get him out of there? Now there is one who is dead since January but his followers have kept him in a deep freezer and claim that he is in a state of deep meditation. What next? The Supreme Court has directed the followers to cremate the Godman. Whether the followers or his son, who claims to be one and has the documents to prove that he is, will follow the apex court’s orders remain to be seen.
India is not a rich country and certainly cannot afford to squander public money on such people who go on making public hate speeches against other communities to gain some mileage in the elections. The ruling NDA leaders come in support of such a person although they acknowledge it is wrong in the first place to make hate speeches. This will encourage others to follow suit and when confronted they just say they did not mean to hurt the sentiments of the targeted person and come out with an apology. One cannot make statements against the Constitution of India, which we the people of India have given to ourselves. Every Minister takes a vow to uphold the Constitution at the time of being sworn in and it is something that one can take lightly and issue a simple apology without showing any remorse.
The highest court in the country must take notice of these incidents and prompt punitive action initiated to prevent them occurring in the future. The Ministers are role models for our people and they must set examples by their actions in and out of Parliament.
