By RK Lakhi Kant
Business in the country today is surely suspect. Once we start analyzing the whole Indian business enterprise it becomes quite evident that while money is flowing as never before there are many other concerns among which social health, as also individual health, is of utmost importance.
New Delhi gives a very clear picture of the way business is transgressing on community and social living, to the extent that many people are sick in the capital city. I was in Ghaziabad for a few weeks and saw how some large factories are working there. The factory chimneys are emitting deadly chemical fumes and that too just next to the residential areas. It is quite obvious that people who run a polluting factory will not possess the common sense or sensitivity to make good products and rely on bribery, licenses through shady deals etc. to run their business.
This is only one example of the malady. There may be thousands more brand names involved since Indian business volume is worth billions now. There is no doubt that the Indian business is capable of lifting India to be chart leaders, but it seems that they never thought about the India that lives in lakhs of villages and towns. Is every facet of growth to be measured in terms of volume of business without any concern for the kind of traditional life the masses live? While once in a while there is hue and cry over land grabbing by big companies in many rural areas, no one seems to be thinking about the other part of this happening where many people from the smaller places are flocking toward the cities for employment without knowing what life is like in the city. Either they are too cowered down in the urbane elitist life, or they are too much upfront marshaling the private enterprises as members of private policing forces that do not know what they are protecting.
Rural India has a different way of life and what we are trying is to superimpose an urbane taste on it. It’s quite evident that rural India has no knowledge of what the urban areas consume by way of food, or other aesthetic tastes in architecture, clothing and art and entertainment. What is the blueprint for progress like? Should every town become a smaller city and villages grow into bigger towns. Rural life in India is many times incompatible with the changes brought about by the 21st Century.
For rural India the biggest predicament is genetically cultured seeds which is a break from traditional eating habits. These scientific experiments are producing not quality food items but fruits and vegetables which look good but have gone sick and which can harm those who eat them over a period of time. We cannot blindly bulldoze the community life of the rural people. It is a repeat of the Independence era when Indian cotton was sent to Manchester where dhotis were produced to be shipped back to India. Nefarious business. Indian policy makers are leading the country into playing second fiddle – the surest way to economic slavery. Why can’t we project products and lifestyles which are suited to our simpler and saner conditions so that we can have more command over our business?
Coming to the crux of the disharmony being created by a section of the business sector and political decision makers, it is important to mention some things related to Indian socio-religious conditions. People investing in businesses run with help from fake religionists is one thing which can make the country ill, especially when we notice the success with which these cheaters are attracting people to earn easy money. Many so-called ‘successful’ businesses are involved with religious bodies which have amassed money in exchange for giving religious aid, something which a religious group is not ethically correct in doing.
So we can say the market is infected and so are the multitudes using brands which rely on cheating religionists for their business and support.
The founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, called the Sai Baba a ‘charlatan’ (or cheat) and cautioned the people against these kind of godmen who call themselves God to fool the public. New Delhi and via the country’s capital, many areas of trade and commerce are affected by such ‘religious’ cheaters. In fact a lot many people are ill in New Delhi and do not know the real reason behind how they are getting ill. Skin disease, gastric ailments, baldness, mental illness, acute behavioral problems even among young children etc. are common maladies in the last decade or so. Medical bodies must do some study on the health trends of the masses based on such leads, as the country could get affected on an epidemic-like scale. An example not directly related to New Delhi but relevant all the same is an questionnaire survey of 10,000 primary school-children, parents and teachers in Ajmer which reported behavior problems in 38% of 6199 children.
Another example is the number of people affected by skin disease all over their bodies. Every time the writer went out of his place in New Delhi over the past two years he saw at least a few people who have this disease. This disease is very prominent in New Delhi and the Sai Baba group, and other such groups, are almost entirely to be blamed for this. It is difficult to buy from any shop which does not have the Sai Baba displayed in their shops, and especially buying foodstuff from anywhere is impossible without the presence of this godman’s portraits. In the bargain what the shoppers are getting is disease of many kinds due to overexposure to such portraits and people of this group. Hospitals also have such a scenario. A recent report in the Times of India found that the Sai Baba ‘temple’ has a annual turnover of Rs. 1000 crores, and one can imagine the kind of mischief this group can do with that kind of money.
The Vedic line of thought has always spoken about the Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh as the creator, maintainer and destroyer of the universe. Which also means that God has a contender for his post now, with the deifying of Sai Baba in most of the capital`s temples.
The cellular activity in two human beings could become diametrically opposed to each other, according to their faiths either in groups like Sai Baba, or the legitimate Hindu god Vishnu. Again this would obviously mean that we are dealing with, in this context, an anti-Vishnu and anti-god group. The harmful effect is showing slowly in the frequency of occurrence of the above-mentioned illnesses. Also, like AIDS, for which there is no cure, we cannot be sure how the sick body cells are mutating in people promoting the Sai Baba group which represents everything that is opposed to God. This is apart from the tragedy of those people who are getting infected from the open market, for apparently no fault of theirs.
This could also be reason for a still unperceived rift in the armed forces, government machinery, political parties, educational organisations etc. and needs some amount of awareness on the part of all those involved. Also political parties at the helm of affairs during the last decade or so can be cross-checked as Indian business enterprise, especially in New Delhi, has leapfrogged during this time only.
Crimes like rape, which have become very common in New Delhi in the recent years, could be the result of the way these fake religions act against all righteousness and morality, and aim to destroy the bonds of love, affection and care in the society because it is actually an anti-religion, while posing to be a valid religion. Politicians and business lobbies should keep away from cheating the nation in such a way by colluding with crass religionists.