Parmanand Pandey, Advocate, Supreme Court (Secretary General IPC)
If Lord Rama helped Christians (and Hindus) with His grace and Lord Jesus Christ helped Hindus (and Christians) with His grace, it is an ideal situation from the communal point of view. But If Lord Rama did not help Hindus (and of course, Christians as well) by His grace but Lord Jesus Christ helped Hindus and Christians both, it has a subtle meaning. Particularly it is so in India under the prevailing circumstances.
Here is an incident that conveys this subtle meaning. And, let us invoke Christ: O, Christ! Forgive Justice Banumathi for making an un-called for remark from the high pedstal of a retiring judge of the highest court of this land by Attributing Her Rise to Only Your Grace !
Justice R Banumathi, who retired today as the Judge of the Supreme Court thanked Jesus Christ more than once in her farewell speech organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association for making her what she is. It was uncalled for and in bad taste for her to have uttered the words that ‘though she is a Hindu, she believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ.’
As a retiring judge, she could have thanked God, which is an omnibus term instead of thanking Jesus Christ to make her faith and predilections known to one and all. She is supposed to be aware of the havoc that the Christian Missionaries have created in this country by indulging in blatant illegal activities of converting Hindus to Christianity by deceitful means – visiting India on tourist visa and doing missionary work; offering money and other incentives to Hindus for converting to Christianity etc.
If she is a Hindu, which she claimed, she could have spoken about any of the symbols of her faith – or not have spoken of her faith at all as it was immaterial on the occasion of her farewell. But the way she used the name of Jesus Christ, that too more than once, was no less than a sneering comment on the faith i.e. Hinduism.
This amounted to running down one religion and extolling another one. This was a very subtle and dexterous way of propagating one religion at the cost of others.
If she had not said that she was a Hindu and had given all credit to Jesus Christ for her rise to the level of the judge of the Supreme Court, nobody would object to it. However, to say that she is a Hindu but she would not have come up to this level if Jesus Christ had not showered his grace on her, has a meaning and tone – that is, Christianity is better than Hinduism.
Is it not too much for a high dignatory like a judge to advocate one religion, particularly when this country is boiling over this issue? Being a Hindu how could it be that Lord Ram, Hanuman, Goddess Durga or Lord Shiva did not help her but only Jesus Christ helped her? What is all the more shocking was that the Secretary of the SCBA also invoked Jesus Christ while proposing his vote of thanks.
It is a common knowledge that Christian missionaries adopt all sorts of deceptive measures and means to convert Hindus because it is only they – Hindus – who are the easy prey or target. They (Christian Missionaries) do so in the name of providing service, giving education to poor people and different other types of inducements.
It is also known that Justice Banumathi has embraced Christianity but the way she disclosed her identity is unbecoming the stature that she possesses. She will be known by her judgements, some of them are indeed very important, and not by her public announcement of the grace of Jesus Christ.