Amarnath Shiv Ling

06.07.06 Those involved in doctoring the Shiv Ling at Amarnath ought to be charged with crime against faith. They should have left the ling alone, whatever its size. It is the faith of the people that builds a pilgrimage centre and that faith is based on the belief in the sacredness of the place. A Shiv Ling, big or small, is a sacred object. Doctoring it defiles the object. It has now to undergo traditional purificatory rites. People do not go on pilgrimage or pray at a temple for ‘sight-seeing’ in the nature of a tourist, though that is indulged in as a matter of bonus. They go because of a belief that their destination is a sared spot, made so by the penance of rishis.

The importance of Modi and the political agenda of Islam

17.07.06 [This is in the light of Modi's planned visit to Mumbai written about in Haindava Keralam. I commented therein.} I think we would be fooling ourselves if we ascribe terrorism in India to anything else other than Islam. Some of our secularists would like to think that Islamic terrorism was born in India as a reaction to the destruction of Babri Masjid, conveniently forgetting that Muslims partitioned India because they wanted an Islamic state. And this indeed is the basis of Islamic terrorism, right from the day Prophet Mohammad destroyed the idols in Mecca to convert it into a mosque to dito done by Babur to convert the temple at Ayodhya into Babri Masjid. Not only is Islam intolerant of other religions but it alone among all the religions of the world seeks to set up a world state (government) based on Islam. Therefore it is inherently against all states in the world and will not rest till it sets up Taliban like Islamic states everywhere. Thus, it can be seen, Islam is very much a political entity. The relevance of Narendra Modi is that he, as head of a democratic state himself, is eminently positioned to call the bluff of Islam as a religion and expose it as source throughout its history of intolerant regimes and anti democratic ideology.