In today's news - DMK farce, Mayawati's charge and others

In what has become a real farce(or fast?) the DMK's opportunistic support to the Tamil cause after months of fighting which coincides with the elections reached a pinnacle with the CM Mr. Karunanidhi conducting a hunger fast after breakfast. And called it off just before lunch. All this came and went when the Sri Lankan Govt. had already given signs that it was going to call a ceasefire.
Look at the photo below, Mu Ka surrounded by his wives, confidants, security, Air Conditioned comfort and servants and medical staff.
I'm sure Gandhi did not have the same idea when he started doing his Satyagrahas. BTW where was this action hero Mu Ka when thousands of civilians were brutally killed in a genocide by the Sinhalese army?


In other news Mayawati rightly complains that the Congress has unfairly looted the country for 61 years. According to her,

the Congress responsible for poverty and unemployment in the country and said if the BSP is voted to power at the Centre it would focus on the welfare of the “sarv samaj.

Yup, she and her BSP goons would redistribute the wealth from Congress pockets to her purse. Thanks Maya memsaab.

And in a search for Mummies in Egypt the tomb diggers found some... tombs!
Dr. Zahi Hawass pre-eminent archeologist in his usual style said,

there is someone important buried in the temple.

Which means it could be anyone from Cleopatra to her maid servant to her cat. Importance is quite relative and in the ever moving desert that is Egypt no one really knows.

The Christian church in Kerala has thrown its weight behind the communists by starting labour forums for all workers. Not sure if the leaders of these churches know that one of communism's primary goals is the abolition of religion.

Violence in Karnataka

Today's editorial deals with the recent communal incidents in Karnataka and Orissa. Read this set of reports to get a good idea of the underlying issue and what sparked the violence in Karnataka.

Conversion Conundrum

I was intrigued by two articles today on the recent violence in Orissa. One is by Soumitro Das in the Hindustan Times which takes a strongly anti-VHP line (Given her views, I am quite surprised that she has never written in The Hindu before). An excerpt is indicated below though I recommend to our readers to read the entire article:

On the Christian side, thanks to the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act, the Home Ministry is in possession of the Annual Report on Foreign Contributions for 2005-06. It lays out in minute detail the funds received by churches and Christian organisations in India. We know, for example, that the top donors are church-based or Christian-inspired organisations from the US, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. We also know that a greater part of the funds — Rs 7,785 crore — goes to mainly Christian and church-based organisations in India. According to the Home Ministry’s analysis, the major part of the fund are spent on disaster relief and establishment costs. Welfare of scheduled tribes gets only Rs 25 crore and welfare of scheduled Castes only Rs 9 crore. The rest of the money goes into social work — building of schools, colleges, hospitals, etc. Nowhere is the word proselytisation mentioned. There are also no records of mass conversions.

Hence, the Sangh parivar’s argument that Christian charitable and social work is a disguise to convert ‘innocent, illiterate’ tribals and Dalits is a lie — at least as far as the records go. The Home Ministry report also tells us that the bulk of the money is spent in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi — not in Orissa or Gujarat.

Note her claim that the Sangh Parivar's argument is a lie. She asserts that no money is being spent by missionaries and there is no record of mass conversion.

I found a second report in the Washington Post on the same topic. Here is the relevant excerpt:

Conversions to Christianity have been happening fast among impoverished tribal communities in Kandhamal, a remote district with few links to the outside world or state services. The Christian population here, largely made up of traditionally nature-worshiping ethnic groups, has swelled from 6 percent in 1971 to 27 percent today, according to government census data.

Some people who convert often get better access to schools and health clinics run by Western Christian groups.

My question: Can they both be right or is one of them lying? Perhaps there have been no mass conversions but that does not discount a much more insidious process. If so, that might explain the census data but it still leaves the question of financing unanswered. Do the missionary organizations have other sources of funding besides foreign aid or have they found a way to bring in that money bypassing the government scanner?