India being a vast country with its borders ranging from the Himalayas in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, sheltering communities of various faiths and practices. The country has been an example of harmony to the west. The country has been home to many great personalities in all the fields present for human discovery. Philosophers, researchers, scientists, mathematicians, engineers but surely among those jewels the one who shone the brightest was the crown jewel of India, Swami Vivekananda. The man who introduced the Indian way to the west. But sadly even he is not left untouched by the unscrupulous elements of the society.
Not even a year has passed since Swami Vivekananda’s statue was defaced at Delhi’s JNU, the incident which came to light after a video depicting messages directed towards the right wing outfit BJP at the statue’s base went viral. The yet to be unveiled statue was defaced with messages that read “Fascism will die”, “Bhagwa” and many other direct abuses to the party in power.
The bigger picture was the demand for rollback of hostel fee hike that was imposed on the students, but the poor Swami just got caught in the midst of a mass scale vandalism of the JNU administrative block. Such is the condition of this harmonious country that the man who preached the unification of all religions is being hated for being a Hindu.
As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.
Swami Vivekananda
Such a profound message was preached by the swami whose bust was vandalized and called ‘Bhagwa’. Ironical!
The same statue is scheduled to be unveiled by PM Narendra Modi on November 12 via a video-conferencing, which will be preceded by a programme on the swami. More drama awaits? Only time can tell but one thing’s for sure. Long gone are the days of a India that was secular, now a university can only have statues fitting it’s ideological affiliations.
