Monday, February 02, 2015

The curious case of Umashankar

Of late, in India, government servants are trending in social networking sites - thanks to their acts, may it be valor or corruption or whistleblowing or irresponsible comments. Here is the curious case of Umashankar! An IAS officer preaching for a particular religion.

India is a democracy bedded on the rocks of fundamental rights for its citizens and right to propagate a belief is one of them. Yet people clamour about his act except the community for which he is preaching. One might strongly advocate in his favour that he wish to do so at his leisure. One cannot argument against this as many top bureaucrats had showed a precedence in the way of writing books, participating in Non-governmental services etc.

Yet, in a country like India, where IAS is considered as a top-rank in bureaucracy and still people having a fascination about it, its is obvious that people may get swayed by the speaker with a IAS rank - if not for speech at least for his rank. Umashankar should be allowed to propagate his belief or religion, but without using his bureaucracy rank in preaching gatherings. Gathering and impact for Bro.Umashakar's preaching will be different from Umashankar IAS' preaching.

More importantly, government should enact a suitable law to regulate religious speeches, gatherings, festivals and its depiction in media. The law and punishment should be such that politicians should mind their tounge and brain when commenting about religions and caste. This will avoid unnecessary wastage of time and resources in giving asnwers, repairing the damages and unnecessary fear in public etc.

Long may live India that is secular!

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