NEWS ANALYSIS: Political colour of religious intolerance
By Kartik Lokhande Religious Intolerance. These two words have been at the centre of debate once again in the recent times. The debate, in this round, started with effort to give political colour to condemnable incidents effected by vandals who cannot be said to represent the peace-loving majority of any religion. Since that effort was made recently first by US President Mr Barack Obama vis-a-vis India, everywhere scene is being created as India is ‘the’ country witnessing religious intolerance. This, obviously, is not the case. Let us examine the issue. Mr Barack Obama made a statement on February 6, 2015 in Washington that ‘acts of intolerance’ experienced by religious faiths of all types in India would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi. He was speaking at National Prayer Breakfast. Within a few days, on February 15, 2015, ‘unidentified miscreants’ sprayed swastika and painted ‘Get Out’ on a wall of Bothell Hindu Temple in Seattle Metropolitan Area in Mr Obama’s own country....