I saw the star news coverage about the sting operation carried out by star news reporters. I really don’t understand why this loud cry over such a small issue on a few Muftis giving out Fatwas for money, Well this is something which is wrong with the Indian culture which slowly developed since the British raj and this is nothing new besides the fact that this is a common practice in every religion including mine (I belong to a Sikh family) Religious politics is common practice and here we are talking about majority and not those who are the people or religious leaders who are an exception and in contrast to the vast majority stick to strict rules and regulations without being tempted by bribes and allurement.

Talk about the Hindu religious leaders who are a puppet in the hands of high profile politicians and I guess this is no news to every one that rss and the vhp is run and driven by political machinery in India which is so powerful that there is no escape for them and who from time to time create opinions among the religious circles which as an end result will end up increasing their vote count in the elections.

Not going too far away and not wasting yours and my own time by talking about individual religions separately lets come back to the Fatwa episode which came into lime light a couple of days ago, Firstly I would like to condemn those people who brought this into media and I have reasons for saying this which I will explain latter.
What would this sting operation do for the common man in India and especially the Muslim community? Well nothing and I can say this for sure that it will have no effect what so ever on any count as Muslims in general have no interest in what a mufti has to say in his fatwa sitting at devband especially when he is saying that we are done with credit cards and this comes to my mind after talking to more then 20 Muslim friends of mine who said to me they don’t give two shits about this stuff and they just carry on their lives regardless of what a mufti declares at devband may be this opinion is restricted to very educated Muslim sphere which is the case about my friends whom I spoke to about this matter and the majority who lives in villages may think other wise and may mean the world to them what a mufti says in a Fatwa But hey they aren’t gonna read this blog either so lets not go there we will leave them to wake up to education a few years latter when the spear named education will poke them in the heart and bring out a shining India which will spear head this world into a new era.

All in all my point is this showing of a few muftis who issued a fatwa for money doesn’t really make me believe that one can get a fatwa for money. I still believe that the money which was taken is a sort of norm for any religious man be it a pujari in a mandir whose chant of mantras differs for a rich man and a poor man, Pass on some good number of Gandhis and you will hear the pujaris voice as loud as a loud speaker its all about money money. Cant stop myself from hitting the Granthi in a gurudwara who will also pay more attention to you if he makes good money out of you don’t know about churches as I haven’t really had any first hand experience and I would not do any injustice to my post by writing something I haven't experienced first hand.

Have you ever been to haridwar har ki pauri? Yeh the most famous Hindu holy river the great ganges flows there and at the bank in the evening the arti experience is second to none. I am not a Hindu but as I have lived in a Hindu dominated society I do have a lot of respect towards Hindu beliefs and I am myself a devotee of lord Shiva so with no disrespect to any religious sentiments of any one reading this I will provide you with a first hand account of what happened when I went to har ki pauri back in 2005 when I got married I went to har ki pauri as its considered to be good to have a holy dip before starting a new life. Me and my wife reached haridwar in the middle of the night at around 1am and to my surprise there were still so many pujais around to help us out at that odd hour. Don’t remember exactly what the pujari ji said to me the puja was going to be for but he made it look like it would change our lives and I said ok as he wasn't asking for to much money I think was less then one thousand rupees and I paid that to him he took us to the river bank and said some mantras and made us do a few rituals and stuff which was a great experience and I sort of got some satisfaction thinking I have done something great but hey the greatness dropped by a few kilometers when pujariji offered us to do a better yagya which was going to cost around rs50000+ (I am not sure if he spotted my rolex or was it my wifes jewelery or may be it was the NRI effect) after all that when I said I am not interested and we just came here for the darshan of har ki pauri he got a bit stroppy with us and started telling us about things which could happen if I don’t go for this so called yagya which was going to change our lives for ever and he just wont leave us alone after that he kept on following up to the other side of the river trying to persuad me to pay him 50 thousand rupees which I wasent going to for sure. In the end when he just got too annoying to me I had to go to the police wala and gave him a few references and he spoke to our pujari ji who just did the small ritual and took about a thousand rupees came running to say you should have told me that you know the Commissioner of police and this and that and he would have done it all for free and started pleading and offered to return the money we paid when I never asked for. So I left the holy banks of ganga with a sore experience and left the pujari to rot in hell with my thousand rupees and left haridwar for good.

Money is the way to go be it any religion. Do you disagree? Do let me know why and how and leave your comments here.

PS: I do not intend to hurt any ones religious feelings, this is just that I have experienced and feel about these matters. And this article was written in 2006 and never posted before so I am posting it here to waste some of your time