George Menezes' self-confession
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Eugene Correia
Mar 25, 2015, 9:08:26 AM3/25/15
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Going through some of my old files, I came across this one. I thought of posting it here as it's very timely. George wrote this in 1981. There was so much debate about Julio Ribeiro's piece, and here George makes a candid confession why he joined the BJP. Maybe, in a sort of way, George did a "Ghar Waspi." In this twilight years, George must be thinking that he did a wise thing of being back to his own self than becoming 'saffron."
Eugene
---
LOOKING BACK IN ANGER by George Menezes
In 1984 I was nominated to the national executive of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by Atal Behari Vajpayee, courtesy
Ram Jethmalani. Those were heady days. I was at that time not
only a director of a multinational pharmaceutical company, but
also a member of the Pontifical Council of the Laity at the
Vatican, the advisory body of the Catholics laity to Pope John
Paul 11.
All hell broke loose theat January. The Christian community go
polarised into supporters and detractors. Posters accusing me
of betraying the Church were circulated, caricatures of me
appeared on walls. An effigy of me, bald but not beautiful, was
burnt by people whose sons I had helped to get jobs. Catholic
periodicals carried letters to the editor on "George and the
BJP" for several months.
The detractors belonged to three groups -- Christian
Congressmen, Christian fundamentalists and one or two
individuals, desperately trying to establish themselves as
leaders of the community.
A few friends not belonging to either of the three categories
expressed surprise and pain in civilised language. On of them
was George Fernandes, a close friend. "If I knew you were
interested in politics," he wrote, "we would have welcomed you
into the Janata Party." In the midst of all this hatred the
voices of support outnumbered the detractors by almsot ten
times. Hoechst India stood by me. Liberal lay people, priests
and nuns too. Bishops in large numbers wrote to say they
understood what I was doing. My won Archbishop did.
I must confess I was taken aback by the nastiness of the
attacks. Why did it bother Christians which political party I
joined? I was not unhappy to discover that people in my
community cared about what I did or did not do. Yet many people
did not want to believe the reasons for my joining the BJP. Let
me state them again. Because I believe in parliamentary
democracy and two-party system. Because in 40 years of power
the Congress had done nothing about the country's principal
problems.
Therefore, I argued, educated Indians committed to change
needed to join large numbers a party that would replace the
Congress government. The BJP had the capability to do just
that. The moderate in the BJP in those years truly believed
that Vajpayee's leadership would steer the BJP to power on a
plank of national issues and not a platform of Hinduvta. And
lastly, because the fears of Rashtra Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
influence on the BJP and its reperrcussions on minorities, I
felt it was necessary for Christians to influence the thinking
about Christians from with the party and build up a lobby.
In my first words to BJP national executive, which are on
record, I said very clearly: "I am an Indian and a Christian
above all else; and I will quit the BJP if either of these are
compromised at any stage." Which I did two years later.
Meanwhile, I was addressing seminars of RSS professors and
teachers on the Christian approach to education. I had
wonderful opportunities to share my own Jesus experience and to
talk about a Jesus who did not give us a law but a way of life.
But my great failure has been that I was not able to influence
Christians to have the guts to enter the BJP -- and influence
it from within.
Only the Vatican understood. When somy of my detractors wrote
to the Vatican asking them to remove me from the Pontifical
Council, they were snubbed. On the other hand, I received from
Rome a warm communication which simply said: "When there is a
choice it is better to build bridges than to build walls."
By now the BJP was being accused of not being able to commit
themselves to a clearcut vote-winning strategy: "Do you want to
come into power at the centre soon or are you prepared to wait
for eternity," the cadres were asking. The answer was loud and
clear. The hardliners took over. The famous 'rath yatra'would
its inflammatory way around India. The BJP had almost hundred
of its members elected to parliament and was able to form
governments in several states. The Vishwa Hindu
Parishad-RSS-Bajrang Dal stranglehold over the BJP was now both
permanent and overt.
Yet the ordinary Indian citizen would never have imagined that
the Babri Masjid would have been demolished. In one *karsevak*
stroke, the BJP abetted by the Congress government had done
what the barbaric Moslem invaders, centuries ago and Pakistan
in recent history had failed to do. Namely, the destruction of
our republic and the exposure of the hollowness of all our
self-righteous claims to democracy, secularism and a culture of
tolerance and non-violence.
Above all, it exposed the political leadership of my motherland
which I lvoe. The unplatable truth is that a country of 800
million people is unable today to produce even few leaders of
quality in my field of endeavour. In fact, visionaries and men
of courage. There are none among the top rungs of the BJP or
the Congress.
Organizations don't close down because of irresponsible
workers. Only because of irresponsible management. Just as the
nation is not on the brink of disaster because of a few hundred
fanatical *karsevaks*. But because of a few dozen ruthless,
selfish, godless, lying, cheating, power hungry politicians.
For the first time in my life, I am afraid. I who dared. I am
afraid not for myself. I am 63 years old. I hold no office. I
am expendable. I am afraid for my children and the children of
all communities for the kind of India they will inherit.
My fear is about what the community and the Church hierarcy
will do if the BJP come to power. Is this possibility on any of
their agenda? Is the strategy that will provide an assertive
yet Christian response as Indians first, always and every time?
As I lie in bed (at) night unable to sleep, the dust of Ayodhya
choking my fragile body, several nightmarish scenes haunt me.
One scene has film stars marching through the streets of Bombay
with placards while riot victims are holding their bleeding
intestines in the corridors of our hospitals.
In another scene, eminent citizens whose number is legion,
sitting with Mother Teresa praying on the well-kept lawns of
Rajghat, asking God to restore what was destroyed also in his
name. Thirdly, thousands of others not so eminent, myself
included, writing articles and making statements to the press.
If a dozen such as these -- jurists, film stars, architects,
writers, painters, economists, doctors, scientists, professors,
mullahs, shankaracharyas, bishops, sportmen, Padma Shris and
Padma Bhusans -- were willing to fast unto death before
Parliament, or immolate themselves in front of the offices of
the BJP and the Congress, this nation might not have suffered
the wounds of today. Are we prepared to do this even now? Or
will Nazi history repeat itself.
"They came for the Jews but I was not a Jew so I did not
protest. They came fo the Union leaders. But I was not one so
I did not protest. When they came for me there was no one left
to protest."
And finally, the photographs of demolition squads of
*karsevaks* with hockey sticks and cricket bats in their hand.
Two games which in recent times have symbolised India's
international fall from grace to levels of undescriable
ignomiy. Are we going to stand by and watch it happen to our
India?
Eugene
---
LOOKING BACK IN ANGER by George Menezes
In 1984 I was nominated to the national executive of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by Atal Behari Vajpayee, courtesy
Ram Jethmalani. Those were heady days. I was at that time not
only a director of a multinational pharmaceutical company, but
also a member of the Pontifical Council of the Laity at the
Vatican, the advisory body of the Catholics laity to Pope John
Paul 11.
All hell broke loose theat January. The Christian community go
polarised into supporters and detractors. Posters accusing me
of betraying the Church were circulated, caricatures of me
appeared on walls. An effigy of me, bald but not beautiful, was
burnt by people whose sons I had helped to get jobs. Catholic
periodicals carried letters to the editor on "George and the
BJP" for several months.
The detractors belonged to three groups -- Christian
Congressmen, Christian fundamentalists and one or two
individuals, desperately trying to establish themselves as
leaders of the community.
A few friends not belonging to either of the three categories
expressed surprise and pain in civilised language. On of them
was George Fernandes, a close friend. "If I knew you were
interested in politics," he wrote, "we would have welcomed you
into the Janata Party." In the midst of all this hatred the
voices of support outnumbered the detractors by almsot ten
times. Hoechst India stood by me. Liberal lay people, priests
and nuns too. Bishops in large numbers wrote to say they
understood what I was doing. My won Archbishop did.
I must confess I was taken aback by the nastiness of the
attacks. Why did it bother Christians which political party I
joined? I was not unhappy to discover that people in my
community cared about what I did or did not do. Yet many people
did not want to believe the reasons for my joining the BJP. Let
me state them again. Because I believe in parliamentary
democracy and two-party system. Because in 40 years of power
the Congress had done nothing about the country's principal
problems.
Therefore, I argued, educated Indians committed to change
needed to join large numbers a party that would replace the
Congress government. The BJP had the capability to do just
that. The moderate in the BJP in those years truly believed
that Vajpayee's leadership would steer the BJP to power on a
plank of national issues and not a platform of Hinduvta. And
lastly, because the fears of Rashtra Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
influence on the BJP and its reperrcussions on minorities, I
felt it was necessary for Christians to influence the thinking
about Christians from with the party and build up a lobby.
In my first words to BJP national executive, which are on
record, I said very clearly: "I am an Indian and a Christian
above all else; and I will quit the BJP if either of these are
compromised at any stage." Which I did two years later.
Meanwhile, I was addressing seminars of RSS professors and
teachers on the Christian approach to education. I had
wonderful opportunities to share my own Jesus experience and to
talk about a Jesus who did not give us a law but a way of life.
But my great failure has been that I was not able to influence
Christians to have the guts to enter the BJP -- and influence
it from within.
Only the Vatican understood. When somy of my detractors wrote
to the Vatican asking them to remove me from the Pontifical
Council, they were snubbed. On the other hand, I received from
Rome a warm communication which simply said: "When there is a
choice it is better to build bridges than to build walls."
By now the BJP was being accused of not being able to commit
themselves to a clearcut vote-winning strategy: "Do you want to
come into power at the centre soon or are you prepared to wait
for eternity," the cadres were asking. The answer was loud and
clear. The hardliners took over. The famous 'rath yatra'would
its inflammatory way around India. The BJP had almost hundred
of its members elected to parliament and was able to form
governments in several states. The Vishwa Hindu
Parishad-RSS-Bajrang Dal stranglehold over the BJP was now both
permanent and overt.
Yet the ordinary Indian citizen would never have imagined that
the Babri Masjid would have been demolished. In one *karsevak*
stroke, the BJP abetted by the Congress government had done
what the barbaric Moslem invaders, centuries ago and Pakistan
in recent history had failed to do. Namely, the destruction of
our republic and the exposure of the hollowness of all our
self-righteous claims to democracy, secularism and a culture of
tolerance and non-violence.
Above all, it exposed the political leadership of my motherland
which I lvoe. The unplatable truth is that a country of 800
million people is unable today to produce even few leaders of
quality in my field of endeavour. In fact, visionaries and men
of courage. There are none among the top rungs of the BJP or
the Congress.
Organizations don't close down because of irresponsible
workers. Only because of irresponsible management. Just as the
nation is not on the brink of disaster because of a few hundred
fanatical *karsevaks*. But because of a few dozen ruthless,
selfish, godless, lying, cheating, power hungry politicians.
For the first time in my life, I am afraid. I who dared. I am
afraid not for myself. I am 63 years old. I hold no office. I
am expendable. I am afraid for my children and the children of
all communities for the kind of India they will inherit.
My fear is about what the community and the Church hierarcy
will do if the BJP come to power. Is this possibility on any of
their agenda? Is the strategy that will provide an assertive
yet Christian response as Indians first, always and every time?
As I lie in bed (at) night unable to sleep, the dust of Ayodhya
choking my fragile body, several nightmarish scenes haunt me.
One scene has film stars marching through the streets of Bombay
with placards while riot victims are holding their bleeding
intestines in the corridors of our hospitals.
In another scene, eminent citizens whose number is legion,
sitting with Mother Teresa praying on the well-kept lawns of
Rajghat, asking God to restore what was destroyed also in his
name. Thirdly, thousands of others not so eminent, myself
included, writing articles and making statements to the press.
If a dozen such as these -- jurists, film stars, architects,
writers, painters, economists, doctors, scientists, professors,
mullahs, shankaracharyas, bishops, sportmen, Padma Shris and
Padma Bhusans -- were willing to fast unto death before
Parliament, or immolate themselves in front of the offices of
the BJP and the Congress, this nation might not have suffered
the wounds of today. Are we prepared to do this even now? Or
will Nazi history repeat itself.
"They came for the Jews but I was not a Jew so I did not
protest. They came fo the Union leaders. But I was not one so
I did not protest. When they came for me there was no one left
to protest."
And finally, the photographs of demolition squads of
*karsevaks* with hockey sticks and cricket bats in their hand.
Two games which in recent times have symbolised India's
international fall from grace to levels of undescriable
ignomiy. Are we going to stand by and watch it happen to our
India?
Jose
Mar 25, 2015, 10:32:06 AM3/25/15
to goa-bo...@googlegroups.com
A few quick comments:
1: Not very sure which of George's writings Eugene is referring to.
2: It is highly unlikely that George wrote 'LOOKING BACK IN ANGER' in 1981
The above notwithstanding:
3: The dam once breached.....is breached
4: Egg-shells once broken cannot be ever fully repaired
jc
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Eugene Correia
Mar 25, 2015, 1:19:45 PM3/25/15
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My error in giving the wrong date. It was written in 1993.
eugene
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