conscience and moral obligation in issues like these are indeed very abstract matters and one can interpret them in different ways depending upon one's orientation. Hence, what President Pratibha Patil said unfortunately most of the time simply falls on a duck's back.
The problems we are confronting today are not the teething troubles of a young democracy since it is more than 64 years now after we have obtained our independence. It is a period long enough even for a nation to evolve itself and manifest its ethos to the world at large. The problems perhaps are some of the illogical and imaginary fears wrongly entertained by the Hindu fundamentalists, misled and misused by people with vested interests. It is said that where there is no vision, people perish. What vision can we expect from people who only wait for an opportunity to pounce upon the next door neighbor and settle some imaginary scores because he belongs to a small and minor group of some other religion, rather than think of the welfare of the nation - its stability and success, much less playing its role in the world among the comity of nations! Narrow-mindedness, short-sightedness and a burning thirst for immediate gratification, are the unfortunate maladies from which a large number of people are suffering in India today. Most of those who selflessly fought for our freedom are dead or are simply relegated to the background rendering them ineffective.

India is an esteemed member of the world body, the United Nations Organization, and is desperately trying to become a member of its most important Security Council, perhaps very rightly so. It is in this context that I wish to assert here that it is the bounden duty of every citizen of India to know that we have to respect all the 30 articles as enumerated under “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” and more specifically, the article -18 dealing with one's freedom of conscience, which reads, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” But selfish as most of us are, we seem to have unfortunately conveniently forgotten all these international commitments or to take them seriously. How, otherwise, can an incident like the one that took place in Kochi recently where a Daytona Beach pastor, Pastor William Lee, was locked up with violent criminals for participating in a Christian musical programme. The 48-year-old minister said he was taken to a stuffy cell in the Ernakulam Sub-Jail in Kochi. Lee, a former Massachusetts corrections officer said, it was one of the worst places he has ever been. Jailers gave the Ormond Beach man a 4-foot wicker mat for a bed, and he was placed in a 20-foot-by-20-foot cell with a toilet and a spigot for a shower to be shared with seven other men, including a murderer. He would later learn that he unknowingly violated his visa norms, by preaching at the conference. "That has never happened before," said Lee, who started traveling to India in the late 1990s and has gone on about 50 mission trips around the world. "I felt they were trying to make a statement, and they were being a little selective." Does it come anywhere near the great Indian saying that the guests deserve to be treated like the gods?
Pastor William Lee was only following the Command from God - (Mark 16:15)New International Version (NIV) - 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. If a Hindu were to attend a musical evening wouldn't he chant Hindu Mantras, and William Lee has only shared Good news. He has not asked to rebel against a nation or did not sponsor terrorism. He traveled to India on Oct. 3 after being invited to preach at a convention called "Musical Splash 2011" in the southwestern Indian city of Kochi. The event had gone off without a hitch. It was the last day of the conference, and Lee would preach to a crowd of 10,000 strong. He had .just started his message when police officers showed up. It ended up being one of the shortest messages Lee has ever preached, but it would lead to the most-trying time of his life. The Hindu, a newspaper that covered Lee's arrest and deportation, reported the minister has been blacklisted. But Lee said he has every intention of coming back, if allowed. Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists openly preach in India while Christians are denied religious visas. And in some of the states not even the local Christians are allowed to speak about Christ and his great teachings for the peace of mind, prosperity and ultimately his very salvation. In all fairness, the minimum these people can do is to read the four gospels, before adopting these double standards and begin hunting for the evangelists. With these selective ways of the application of the constitutional provisions, how can one ever expect social harmony in this country? Only time will tell.

Dr. Sajan K. George,
National President,
Global Council of Indian Christians

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