By M L Satyan

Bengaluru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi on January 19, where he mainly focussed on two burning issues.

(a) Farmers’ Protest:

Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Centre over the farmers’ agitation, saying that the “image” of India built by the Congress is being “destroyed” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Commenting on the farmers’ protests at several borders of the national capital for the last 55 days over the three farm laws, he said that “a tragedy is unfolding.” This is something to be ashamed of. The whole world is looking and asking why lakhs of farmers are sitting outside Delhi. So, Modi is destroying the image of India that Congress and Mahatma Gandhi built slowly and steadily,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi launched a booklet on the three farm laws titled ‘Kheti ka Khoon’ (Blood of the farm field). Slamming the government, he said that the government believes it can tire out the farmers. “But farmers cannot be tired or fooled. They are much smarter than the Prime Minister. The only solution to end the farmers’ protest is to repeal the three farm laws,” he said.

(b) Leaked security secrets:

Rahul spoke about the leaked chats allegedly between the Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami and former head of rating agency BARC Partho Das Gupta discussing the Balakot air strike after the February 14, 2019 Pulwama terror strike on CRPF convoy. He said that such a sensitive issue was a subject of national secret regarding a planned air strike which is only either with the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister, Union Defence Minister, Indian Air Force Chief and the National Security Advisor. “I want to know who among the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Defence Minister or NSA leaked the secret information to the journalist. This is a criminal act. If the journalist had such information on his WhatsApp, I assume the Pakistanis too had it,” he said. He further said, “Whoever is responsible for leaking out this secret must be sent to jail.”

Priorities for Church leaders:

On the same day Cardinals Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Syro-Malankara Church leader Baselios Cleemis met Prime Minister Modi. The discussion focussed on the following issues:
a) Inviting Pope Francis to India
b) Continued incarceration of Fr. Stan Swamy
c) Equitable distribution of the minority funds
d) Certain difficulties faced in Kerala church

On December 28, 2020, some representatives of the Malankara Syrian Church met Prime Minister Modi. On December 29, 2020, the representatives of the Jacobite Church met Prime Minister Modi. Why? The Jacobite church and the Orthodox denominations of the Malankara Syrian Church have been fighting for the control of 2000-odd churches and their rich coffers for more than two decades. They sought Modi’s mediation for an amicable solution.

Contrast:

As Rahul Gandhi rightly put it, today the country is facing a huge tragedy due to Economic crisis; Growing unemployment; Covid-19 and its negative consequences; Crony capitalism; Government’s capture of Election Commission, Reserve Bank of India, Central Bureau of Investigation, Parliament, Judiciary and Media; Foreign invasion – China occupying Indian land on the borders; Planned destruction of farming and farmers; Ever increasing atrocities on women and non-stop sexual abuses.

When the nation is going through a very difficult time due to the above burning issues, Rahul exercised his responsibility as the opposition leader to admonish the ruling government on its failures. He said boldly, “I am not afraid of Modi. I am a clean person. No one can touch me. Yes, I can be shot. Even if I am alone, I will speak the truth.”

See, how the farmers (young and old; men and women) are able to challenge the police, state and central governments. As per the farmer leaders and media persons, 80 to 100 farmers have died so far fighting for their rights. They all have withstood various obstacles and continue to face problems with great determination.

When it comes to the church leaders, we find that they have their own “petty agendas”. They do not seem to be concerned about what the nation is going through presently. They have failed to exercise their ‘prophetic responsibility’ to challenge the pro-crony capitalists Prime Minister who is leading the nation towards disaster.

Call to be prophetic:

Let these church leaders read the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea and Amos and understand how the prophets challenged the corrupt rulers of their time and spoke on behalf of the oppressed people. Here are some samples:

“Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. You say to yourselves, “We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our corn. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures and tamper with the scales to cheat our customers. We will find a poor man who cannot pay his debts, not even the price of a pair of sandals, and we will buy him as a slave.” (Amos 8:4-6).

“The Lord has an accusation to bring against this land… There is no faithfulness or love in the land…The people make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase and there is one murder after another.” (Hosea 4:1-2).

What did Jesus do in his time? He always stood by the side of the poor and did everything for them. He challenged the exploitative hierarchical structure, corrupt rulers, officials and priests. He knew very well that he had to pay a heavy price – death on the cross. He fought till the end.

While watching the YouTube videos regularly published by different journalists on farmers’ protest, we notice that the young and old farmers, young girls and old women speak boldly and eloquently on the need for repealing the three farm bills. They speak with clear conviction. They dare to ask serious questions on the attitude and autocratic functioning of the Prime Minister Modi and his government. We see “many prophets” among the protesting crowd.

The church leaders must learn a great lesson from the simple farmers on how to oppose laws, policies, structures that are harmful to the citizens and challenge corrupt politicians. Like Nero, let them not fiddle while the country is burning.