Sarma Cited Karmic Theory To Encourage Teachers In Assam, So What?

Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma finds himself in the midst of a raging controversy over a comment he made while handing over appointment letters to teachers at a function in state capital Guwahati on Tuesday. Sarma exhorted the newly-appointed teachers to work hard and diligently so as to ensure that children, who are the country’s future, receive proper education and become good citizens of tomorrow.

Sarma also remarked that the good deeds of the teachers in the present life would ensure “good karma” for them and they would, thus, be appropriately rewarded in their next lives. In saying so, Sarma rightly enunciated a central principle of Hinduism. “Our present lives, what we are in this life, is the result of our karma in our past lives. Our sufferings in this life are the result of the karma of our past life. People meet with accidents, suffer from cancer or other diseases. Such sufferings are due to their bad karma, their bad deeds, in their last lives. Hence, we all should strive to do good deeds now in order to minimise our sufferings in their next lives. Teaching is a noble profession and if teachers do their work properly and instill proper values among their students and build them up as good citizens of tomorrow, it will translate into good karma for teachers,” Sarma reportedly told the gathering of teachers.

However, as happens very often with such remarks centering on Hinduism and Hindu values and principles, Sarma’s remarks were taken out of context by the local media which misreported Sarma as saying that “cancer is divine justice”. A torrent of criticism and even abuse followed, with one journalist tweeting that the ‘pumpkin of the day’ award goes to Sarma. Congress leader P Chidambaram also penned a sarcastic tweet saying, “That is what switching parties does to a person” (alluding to Sarma crossing over from the Congress to the BJP). Sarma was quick to retort through a series of tweets challenging the journalist to a discussion on the Bhagavad Gita (where the concept of karma is enunciated) and explaining to Chidambaram what he had said and adding that in the Congress, discussing Hindu philosophy may be taboo. He also tweeted about Chidambaram breaking away from the Congress to form the Tamil Maanila Congress and then rejoining the party.

Another senior Congressman, Kapil Sibal, also jumped into the fray and tweeted that Sarma becoming a minister is “divine injustice”. Sibal seemed to have forgotten that Sarma was a senior minister in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress ministry in Assam till a couple of years ago and Sibal himself had showered praise on Sarma on many occasions in the past.

Some even went personal. A senior journalist, for instance, referred to Sarma’s father dying of cancer in her tweet and asked Sarma to apologise to his late father for suggesting he had sinned in his past life. Sarma’s response was dignified, asking Ghosh to realise the difference between sin and karma and reiterating that for him, the Gita represents the ultimate truth.

There was support, too, for Sarma with many in social media urging him to disregard his critics.

Though Sarma has since clarified that he was quoting from the Bhagavad Gita and was referring to the concept of karma while exhorting teachers to impart good and value-based education to children, many continue to hound him. Many even dubbed him ‘communal’ for talking about Hindu philosophy from a public platform. Some commentators wrote that being a minister who is under an oath to uphold the country’s “secular Constitution”, Sarma deserves condemnation for explaining Hindu philosophy to government teachers. It amounted to promoting Hinduism and Hindutva.

But in reality, underlying all the criticism and condemnation sparked by Sarma’s innocuous exhortation to teachers is a deep-seated bias against Hinduism in sections of the media and political parties. In fact, many of the comments on social media and in the local media can even be termed Hindu-phobic. No such outrage was witnessed in the past when at least two of Assam’s Congress ministers – Rockybul Hussain and Sukur Ali – had spoken about the concept of kifarah in Islam in public and from government for many a times. The concept of kifarah is simple: if one does good, he or she will reap the benefits of good deeds and goodness in the present life itself. Thus, this (kifarah) principle of Islam urges people to do good and this is what the two Congress ministers had, at various times, spoken about.

However, their speeches and comments on kifarah did not evoke any comment. Hussain, who held the forest and tourism portfolios in the Tarun Gogoi ministry, had once urged tour operators to be honest and fair in their dealings with tourists and had referred to the Islamic concept of kifarah in his speech. Sukur Ali, who held the public health engineering (PHE) portfolio, had also once urged engineers of the department to work honestly and diligently for the public. Ali had then said that in Islam, doing good unto others as per the principle of kifarah would benefit a person in this life and, hence, PHE engineers should work for the good of the public at large.

No one accused them of being Islamist or promoting Islam. Neither did the local media misreport their speeches or quote them out of context, nor did others outrage over their reference to Islamic philosophy. Perhaps, as many commented, had Himanta Biswa Sarma still been in the Congress, his speech on Tuesday may not have attracted any criticism or outrage.

In the past, too, Sarma had attracted criticism for his bold moves which were criticised as communal. His decision to make Sanskrit compulsory up to Class VIII in government schools was dubbed as anti-minority. His introduction of the two child policy (barring those with more than two children from being elected to local bodies and government jobs) was also slammed as being anti-minority by the national media. He was also targeted by the opposition and the pseudo-secular media when he directed madrasas in the state to not remain shut on Fridays, as many of them had been doing in violation of norms. That directive, too, was portrayed as an anti-Muslim order. Sarma's initiative to modernise madrasa education and curricula earlier this year by disbanding the state madrasa education board and placing all madrasas under the state secondary education board got the goat of the 'liberals' too. The 'liberals', of course, conveniently ignored the fact that Sarma had simultaneously disbanded the Sanskrit Board which looked after Sanskrit tols in the state.

Sarma, however, remained unfazed, and boldly defended his initiatives. A devout Hindu, Sarma has no qualms in wearing his faith on his sleeves and taking on the so-called liberal media, especially the national media which has, so far, had a very condescending attitude towards politicians from the Northeastern and smaller states of the country. Sarma's denial of any quarter to them and his propensity to challenge the media, especially journalists ensconced in their ivory towers in Lutyens Delhi, had earned him the wrath of the left-liberal cabal and, of course, a lot of admiration from many.