Long years ago, the American author Kurt Vonnegut wrote that disaster is brought on most frequently, not by sceptics who agree to live under flawed and cumbersome human laws, but by those who cannot be satisfied with anything less than the law of god. If natural law is king, divine law is an ace, Vonnegut said, and dictators have fistfuls of aces and kings to play with.
It is impossible, of course, that Vonnegut had the scum of Karnataka politics in mind, but B.S. Yediyurappa of god’s own party, has set about to prove him right. By inviting his bugbear, H.D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular, no less), to prove his allegations of corruption not at the court of man-made laws but at the divine court of the Manjunatha temple in Dharmasthala, the scam-tainted Karnataka chief minister has dragged divinity into the nonstop disgrace that has been the hallmark of BJP rule.
The questions are obvious about this dharmic duel: Why bring god into this battle of mortals, when a simple injection of the truth serum at a forensic science laboratory (televised live) would have been enough to ascertain who was being extravagant in their lies? What would a lifeless piece of stone know about human frailty, albeit of the VIP kind? And why just the Manjunatha temple, why not some other temple, church, mosque, gurudwara, stupa or fire temple?
But the even larger question is the nonstop joke that the Hindutva buffoons have reduced the State to, in the eyes of the nation. One of the most progressive regions of the 20th century, is getting submerged in a sea of superstition and obscurantism in the 21st, at the hands of casteist and communal crooks and thugs, whose battle strategy starts at maata-mantra and stops at obscene visits to temples, near and far, with hapless animals being sacrificed at the altar.
And now this: what had god done to deserve this?
Also read: How BJP has raised witchcraft to statecraft
CHURUMURI POLL: Black magic in Silicon Halli?
The only place black magic works is in your mind
churumuri 
It absolutely makes no sense, why bring god in such things. Moreover whats the guarantee that they will tell the truth – its like telling your school kid – don’t lie otherwise god will punish you ! duhhh !! duhhh !!
what a load of crap.. what the heck is court for !
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Yes, Netas can swear before Allah or Jesus who are secular Gods, but not before Gods of the Hindu pantheon.
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India is a country where Hinduism is a way of life, where there is place for believers & non believers. there is a belief that no one will lie in front of lord Manjunatha. They are only exercising their belief in God in a similar way how thousands who flock to Dharmasthala do.Why have u mischievously bought Secular & India in it? can’t u keep ur secular goggles aside and think at all?
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By the way, what exactly is the meaning of secular? The dictionary says : “not concerned with the spiritual or religious affairs”. In our country, every politician proudly declares that he is secular and goes on touring temples, mosques, churches, identifying with one or the other religious group or leaders. So what is secular? And what is the difference between “Secular India” and “India”? Is there a separate country called India than “Secular India”?
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Well, well, LOL :)
If BSY did fear GOD, he would be afraid of punishment GOD would give him later in life or after death. He knows there is nothing like court of GOD. This proves BSY doesn’t believe that GOD exists and which is true anyway.
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Thus proving beyond doubt that religion, politics and drama make a potent mix… as long as no one calls their bluff, which i don’t see happening if the worthies above are any sampling.
I wouldn’t blame the politician though: even a politician without a scrupulous bone in his or her body would make a public display of their religiosity (taking language liberties here :)), it is a very conscious effort to get public sanction, and what’s more, they do get it. As long as religion remains sacrosanct, there’s little hope of achieving separation of religion and state…
“someone who offers oblations in the abode of God cannot be that bad”, they aver…
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Who said India is secular. The makers of the constitution knew the true meaning of the word and they didn’t bother to include it.
It was Indira Gandhi who cunningly added ‘secular’ to the constitution. For the Congress, secularism is anti-Hindu and minority appeasement.
BTW : For all those who swear by the constitution – the word socialist also appears – should be state take over private enterprise and restart license raj, we have to respect the constitution right?
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Secularism does not mean that people should be forced to become pseudo-secular or atheists.
Whether netas want to swear before God or not should depend on thier personal feelings. The nation has no right to dictate anyone on matters of religion.
So at the time of swearing in the court, the people should be given a choice to swear before God or make a personal pledge to speak the truth.
People have EVERY right to be irrational, speak lies and have faith in false ideologies. This is all about freedom of speech and thought.
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huh! We’ve had Yeddy’s son file a Affidavit (a sworn statement) about not owning a site in Bangalore, which turned out to be a lie.
Almost every Minister takes an oath of office saying “I do swear in the name of God…”, and go on to affirm they’ll execute their task without fear or favor. We all know how much they value that swear. In case of Yeddy, he has admitted to both Fear and Favor!!
He feared his rival Reddys and was in tears when he confessed to have done things in fear of loosing office. Once his son’s site allotment issue was in the open he again confessed to a ‘mistake’ and swore such a thing won’t happen again. So, where was the value for the swear in the name of god to work ‘without fear or favor’??
So, Why would a swear in Dharmastala any different? People without honor will go to any lengths to hoodwink a few who have blind faith in their trust in godly matters.
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” And now this: what had god done to deserve this? ” – This last line is what i agree with the most..and other being how Karnataka’s stature being eroded…
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This is a direct insult to Bharat Mata, its constitution and the Supreme Court of India.
Are these two worthies saying that testifying in front of a God is superior to the courts? That they give a damn for everything else, including the courts?
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Good time pass, free entertainment for the people, fodder for the media, work for cartoonists, humourists…..
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Yeddy in front of the Lord shud be saying “In the name of God I am trying my best to outdo Kumara” whilst Kumara will be laughing inside and swearing almost the same lines back at the Lord.
As usual,the jokes on us!
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Ridiculous! I doubt that Sri Manjunatha would appreciate such ostentatious devotion.
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With idiots like this governing our country, no wonder we are in shambles.
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May these third rate fellows meet their end very soon.
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Most of the times I feel our youth are really wasted under the clumsy education system which sucks their 20-25 years of high productivity and leaves them enslaved under ambit of IT or some other corporate activity for the enhancement of globalization!
The sick and old men cannot offer anything more than trying to speak truth, with a system unable to track their actions in public.
If a energy center like Dharmasthala makes people to speak truth then there are chances to the greatest masterminds of the world to turn it into illusion.
Ashwathama Hatha…Kunjaraha. thus spake holier.
Speaking of old men,
Manmohan Singh has not issued a strong statement on corruption yet as he has done on terrorism though he is muttering some.
KG Balakrishnan was approachable ! was indeed a muttered truth.
In the same way if Devegowda still issues statements like
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2121167.ece
he must also be devising ways to crack them specially when his offsprings have already shown how to ride hummer and radhika.
Most of them define the Freudian stat even when knowing that voiding/vacating themselves would lead to an exemplary situation.
The absence of suitability to practice international relations, comparative religion and various other courses in our academics and thinktank mostly encouraging job oriented western education shows why we lack young unsusceptiblility.
Such a great land of revolutions with literary giants for almost a century and then this void of 25 years where leaders were those who had 1000 of acres of land and who speak truth only in temples!
This shows the coupling required for the next generation on the wisdom got completely ruined in the ambit of post 91 globalization and the disturbances between centre and state .
Not only god, what has common man of Karnataka done to deserve this?
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Third rate politicians and third rate gods lead a third rate people.
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It does not matter if they it or not. All should be atheists.
Atheists are now here to stay. We are ready to take over the culture and move it ahead for the benefit of all mankind. Religion has ever been anti-human, anti-woman, anti-life, anti-peace, anti-reason, and anti-science. The god idea has been detrimental not only to humankind but to the earth. It is time now for reason, education, and science to take over.
Just check what indians do in secular india.
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Do you call these guys neta’s these are pimps and yes they can swear anywhere because these people don’t even hesitate for a while to even sell the mother/sis if they have any!
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With due respect to everyone out here, I am sure that so much outrage would not have been witnessed if our politicians had been seen prostrating before a communist God like Lenin, Mao or Stalin.
Just because they are praying before a Hindu god the pseudo-secular brigade is outraged and shocked. The pseudo-secular brigade only wants our leaders to prostrate before false leftist icons.
I am really and truly fed up with such hypocrisy. People’s religious believes are their personal issue. The pseudo-secular brigade has no right to force our politicians to give up their religious feelings.
People have the right to be irrational, and they have the right to be religious. They also have the right to be believe in leftist Gods like Lenin, Satlin and Mao. So what!
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@Objectivist Mantra: You just don’t get it. This is nothing to do with pseudo-secularism. This is the way to lead our state? To run a government? The last time I checked it was 2011, not 1011A.D.
These two idiots want to fight it out before a presiding deity and dare to use that as some sort of acid test for honesty, very well knowing they are both crooks. While we’re at it, how about “if I speak a lie, may I be struck down by lightning from Zeus’ thunderbolt” too?
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Why is everyone cribbing about this, it gives a very unique and easy solution for resolving the disputes.
I think all of us should follow this idea, this will be good for the country let me tell you, how?.
Here it is:
From now on all the civil cases should be resolved in temples by oath-taking process (whose oath is genuine will be decided by god and the priest). This reduce the burden of civil courts and so they can concentrate more on criminal cases which is double good for the country. And this will also reduce the time taken for resolving the entire process when compared to courts.
Please see the silver lining of the idea.
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What if it works? Dharmasthala will overtake Tirupati ;)
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Enigma! Thanks for making me have a good, hearty laughter for two minutes… Indeed, what an Idea Sir ji !…..
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@Jagdish, I agree with much of what you say, but at the same time I must say that you fail to understand the art of politics.
Politics is not about truth or lies. It is about convincing sufficient number of voters that you are like them. So these two gentlemen are doing the right thing.
They are going to the God in whom millions of people have faith. So they are sending out the signal that they are just like ordinary people. They prostrate before the same God in front of whom millions of voters in the state prostrate.
This makes them one with the voters. So they are not as foolish as you and other secularists may think they are. They are behaving in a politically astute way.
They are smarter than the so called secular leaders of the UPA who remain locked up in their plush palaces and are never seen to be acting like normal Indians.
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The President of the USA takes his oath by placing his hand on the Bible. Does that make the US any less secular because the President is Christian?BSY and HDK are taking personal oaths- in front of a deity they (presumably) have faith in – and are responding to personal challenges, so what’s secularism got to do with it? There’s no state mandate that governmental matters have to be decided by temple visits and oaths! The question is specious. What one does in one’s personal life and space is one’s personal business. This is a personal matter between the two, there’s no state involved.
That it is an obnoxious display of ignorance, foolishness and idiocy is beside the point. It still has nothing to do with a secular state!
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@Objectivist Mantra: Yes I understand and have seen dirty politics everywhere here in our state and country, but this action is blatantly insulting to the intelligence of even a semi-literate villager.
I was traveling to Mysore via Maddur a couple of days back, had delicious Maddur vada from a road-side street vendor who happened to be discussing this same issue with his helper. The old man was probably 55-60 years old and his helper may be 14-15. Even these supposedly “uneducated villagers” were ridiculing the Yeddy-HDK charade, and could easily see through their farce. The old man’s take was that his people don’t care about this play-acting when life is hard and is getting worse every day for the common man, with increasing prices, rampant corruption at every level, more power cuts, water problems and the general perceived inability of any of our governments to uplift people like my friend the Maddur vada vendor.
I don’t see this charade having a really significant impact on the psyche of too many voters, they’re just tired of what they have been going through for decades.
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@Jagadish, the uneducated and the educated people are ridiculing these leaders because it is cool to ridicule anyone who is a religiously minded. We have imported such liberal-leftist culture from pseudo-secular Europe.
This incident is no big deal. These two leaders from Karnataka are free to express their religious feelings in anyway they wish to. As a secular nation, we should not be interfering in people’s religious beliefs.
Let them pray as much as they want in their own time. The law of secularism only entails that the policy decisions should not be influenced by religious faith. As of now that does not seem to be the case.
It is simply a case of two leaders choosing to pray before a God that they believe in, what’s the problem with that.
We don’t object when our leaders go to celebrate their summer vacations in Europe at tax payers money, so why should we object when they are going to a temple? I fail to see the logic behind the anger that this incident seems to be generating.
If I start signing off my blog as OM, (which are my initials) instead of Objectivist Mantra, I am sure some people may not like that. Somehow it has become fashionable to criticise old fashioned Gods, icons and symbols.
We would rather have our politicians going to Feng Shui centres, Riki, laugh therapy sessions, etc….
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