When the whole world is busy dealing with the huge disaster in Nepal, Sakshi Maharaj is going around proving his intellect. According to a report by Times of India, Sakshi Maharaj, a BJP leader, has blamed Rahul Gandhi for the earthquake in Nepal. He said, “Rahul Gandhi eats beef, and goes to the holy shrine (Kedarnath) without purifying himself. The earthquake was bound to happen.”
Now he is being widely criticized all over the internet for his stupid remarks. But that is it. I am not saying that he should be sent to jail for this and neither am I interested in discussing the political agenda behind his statement. But yes, I am scared ot it.
This is so because what his statement does is not directly evident in front of us. The majority of us are well educated people who understand how baseless this comment is, and hence, we criticize it strongly. But what about those thousands of uneducated people whom he addresses in his rallies? Probably those people look upon him as a sensible person who has a better understanding of things. They are not open to so many perspectives and viewpoints, like us. They have limited resources.
But when the same person steps up to the podium and relates eating beef with an earthquake, the message which goes to the public is completely misleading. We again and again ask this question, ‘Why are we still stuck with old beliefs which have no logic and explanation?’ This is the answer. It is people like him who promote such senseless ideas. Instead of providing any help to the survivors, they are busy making irrelevant acquisitions on individuals.
It is not the first time that Sakshi Maharaj has said anything like this. Congress spokesperson, Sushmita Dev, in her reply, said to the reporters at AICC briefing, “If media reports are to be believed, BJP leader and MP Sakshi Maharaj now famous for asking women to produce 10 babies, eulogising the killers of Mahatma Gandhi and comparing humans with dogs for sterilisation, are now ascribing the earthquake in Nepal to Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Bhagwan Kedarnath.”
And I cannot agree more. This is not the first time when a political leader has used or rather I should say ‘misused’ religion in the name of dirty politics. There have been leaders of almost all the parties who have tried creating a rift between communities, to benefit themselves. If I start listing them out, then probably I will have to write another article for that, so let’s not go there.
No matter how much we feel that we never fall into the trap set by these politicians, there is always a huge section of the society which does fall into it. And so, these statements may well be amusing for us, but the effects that they can have on innocent masses scares the shit out of me.
These kinds of statements given by the politicians are generally the ones which are directly given to the media. What about the hundreds of other statements which they might have given in the rallies in their constituencies and other public meetings? There is no track of it. The amount of damage which they have done cannot be measured.
People like Sakshi Maharaj (Certainly a nominee for the politicians who give the dumbest statements) only do the job of pushing back the mindset of the people.
And then we say, “Indians are so dumb, we are never going to evolve!
