(Image : indiatoday.intoday.in )
Distinguishing the saint from the sinner is certainly an age-old dilemma for the religious. Not knowing how to make this distinction can and frequently does result in catastrophe for the vulnerable as it delegates too much power in the hands of those who should never have any.
The news is not new that the self-styled god-man Asaram Bapu and his son stand accused of rape. Bringing to light the urgency for a witness protection program, is also the fact that many of the witnesses have been threatened and attacked.
Just like the Vyapam scam, the case seems to be leaving a trail of dead bodies with the 3rd death in the last one month.
Not just the witnesses but even the police who investigated the case claim to have received threats.
As we wait for the case to begin in the courts, it comes as a shock that 3rd standard textbooks list the man as a ‘saint’ alongside the likes of Guru Nanak and Swami Vivekanada.
While his guilt is as yet to be established by the judiciary, surely terming the man a saint is jumping the gun? Especially when outrage over another instance of rape began a women’s revolution in India.
As the courts contend over the credentials of questionable public figures and their alleged crimes, it would be well if educational institutions left out of their syllabus the categorizing of these individuals as saints.
