When I saw this headline in the Indian Express, my first reaction was, what the ef? The same person who beat many non-maharashtrians out of the state, now puts nation ahead of Maharashtra just to gain political mileage over his nephew Raj Thackeray (who resigned from Sena a while back)! I am confused if he is being a hypocrite or just a ‘politician’!For those who have not been around Raj Thackeray and his ‘little army’ has been beating non-marathis in Mumbai and Pune in the name of upliftment of marathis.

Mind you, the same person is re known for his hate propaganda against the so-called outsiders in Mumbai. So why has he suddenly put India ahead of Maharashtra? And what is the explanation he gives? Here goes -

“Shivaji Maharaj took help of Pathans who belonged to other religion and other country in his fight against Mughal invaders,” he said in an editorial published on Wednesday in Sena mouthpiece Saamana.

“We also want to carry out the same work. Those who will come with us are our friends, our brethren. We will not think about their caste, region and religion,” the Sena chief said.

Does that make any sense at all? All I see is a political mind who wants to appease the so called outsiders to uplift the face of a party which is getting weaker by the day. Now why did I call him a hypocrite? Because he wanted to do (or did) exactly the same work Raj is doing now.

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If I were to ask any ordinary malayalee, if Kerala is a secular state or not, the answer will be an outright yes. The state hasn’t witnessed religious tension for a very long time and Hindus, Muslims and Christians co-exist here celebrating each others festivals with much joy (in front of the television of course!). But after speaking to a friend of mine I am having second thoughts on the secular nature of the Govt in Kerala.

Why oh why, should the govt have rights over all the money that comes into the temples in Kerala? In other words, why does the govt have control over the devaswams (a body that makes revenue, administrative decisions, for temples)? In other words why is Kerala govt concerned solely about the money that comes into Hindu temples alone? Why don’t they form devaswams like body for churches and mosques in Kerala? Why?

Is this secularism? Can this be even considered to be a secular act? Why does the govt have to keep a tab on what temples are doing with their money, when no such attempt is made with churches and mosques?

So should govt have a say over monetary transactions of religious institutions at all? I would say yes to that. Because having an eye on the administrative functions of religious bodies, govt can control religious extremism which might originate within the closed doors of religious institutions.

So where has the Kerala govt gone wrong? In not making the law applicable for all religions? In other states, this wouldn’t be such a big issue because of the fact that followers of Christianity and Islam form a minority. But in Kerala Muslims and Christians together form almost 40% of the population, while in many areas they form a majority. Also, many of these institutions receive flurry of money in form of donations from malayalees settled abroad. Their income may not be as big as that of the devaswams; but they are still pretty high.

Is it right to let huge sums of money go unaccounted? No, they create problems for these religious institutions. We have already heard enough allegations (even on mutiny) on how church is misusing funding so availed for conversion and how mosques might be encouraging extremism!

Can’t govt put an end to all this by making it a LAW*, than a biased restriction?

* By LAW I mean a rule that is applicable to everyone and not to a particular class of society alone.

PS: The ‘friend’ I mentioned in the first paragraph is son of an employee at Guruvayur devaswam

I have lived the bulk of my life in Kerala, but I have spent the last three years of my life in Karnataka. Both states have a lot in common… blessed by nature; plenty of water and frequent fights with TN over water!

But the biggest similarity is with the politicians..

In Kerela there is a father son duo who are hated more than liked; Karnataka too possess one such pair.

In Kerala, the father is known by the name of ‘Leader’ among his followers, but the common man know him by the name of K Karunakaran. He has a good for nothing son called K Muralidharan.

Getting to Karnataka… The father is known by the name of ‘Ex-Prime Minister’ but the people here call him Deva Gowda. He too has a son with great political ambitions and his name is HD Kumaraswamy.

What else do Karunakaran and Gowda have in common?

Here goes

Both wanted to become PM of India (Karunakaran didn’t make it.. Gowda did )

Both of them have ruled a state as CM (Karunakaran managed it thrice)

Both managed to split the party (Karunakaran initiated the spilt and formed DIC(K)* Gowda lead the party after the split)

Both used to be a part of Congress party once upon a time!

Gowda was blamed for poor show of JD(S) in the recent election. tie up with Karunakaran’s (party) DIC(K) was blamed for the failure of Cong in the past election (in Kerala)!

Both of them are ‘popular’ for heir ability to topple governments

Karunakaran is now sidelined and his word is given no priority… If Gowda continues with his antics I will have one more similarity to add to the list!

*DIC(K) — Not a slang, it stands for Democratic Indira Congress(Karunakaran)

PS: On a lighter note.. I don’t know whose great idea was it to call a political party DIC(K).. But I guess the politicians behind didn’t think much about the acronym and it’s meanings!