Mangaluru: Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swamiji of Sri Nidumamidi Mutt, who identifies himself with the left thinkers on Tuesday, asked the people to avoid those extremists who use religion in order to achieve for their political interests.
He was addressing a huge gathering of people during the ‘Harmony march towards unity’, here in the city. The programme was organized by Democratic Youth Federation of India and Students Federation of India (SFI).
“It’s very difficult for a politician to become popular through hard work and it’s easy to enjoy huge fan following, by making hate speeches. Hence, many choose the latter. Therefore, it’s our duty to avoid those speakers, who use religion as their platform for political gains”, Swamiji said asking the audience to shun such programmes.’
He further said, the core aim of organizing the Hindu Samajotsava is only for political interests. The organizers have no real interest in the religion. What we need is to create a revolution in the Hindu religion. “We have to question the existence of caste discrimination, poverty and supremacy of higher caste”, Swamiji said.
However, we choose to listen to those who spread hatred, sow seeds of communal abhorrence. It’s highly unfortunate. Hence, it’s high time we introspect. It’s a country of many faiths. India does not belong to one religion. Therefore, we must live unitedly. Otherwise, there is a danger for everyone, he added.
Swamiji further said that there is extremism in every religion – whether Hindu, Muslim and Christian. “They are deliberately sowing the seed of hatred among each other. We should not listen to such people. They destroy the very essence of religion, which teaches love”.
He then said that India is different country. We cannot be identified as a Hindu, Muslim or Christian nation like some foreign countries. India is secular, which celebrates the existence of different faiths.
Muneer Katipalla, state president of DYFI spoke on how religion has been mixed with politics with an vested interest of vote banks.
Santhosh Bajal, Dayanand Shetty, V. Ambareesh, Chandrakala Nandavara, M. Devdas, Vasudev Uchil were among others present on the dais.
