The first half of the conference was quite inspiring – actions, plans and approaches were suggested for Hindu unity. Strategies were formulated for making the Hindu voice heard effectively.
O P Sharma from the NCHT spoke about their diligent efforts at various forums to preserve Hindu unity in the face of threats from external forces.
Shrien Dewani from the National Hindu Students Forum made a dignified and rather matter-of-fact appeal to everyone, “Please don’t start any more Hindu organisations. We have enough of them.”
Hasmukh Shah from the VHP elaborated on the importance of cultivating the sympathy of the hundreds of Hindus who write or report in the national media. He said that the Hindu community needed to have a strategy for dealing with the media based on six ‘A’s – Authority, Accessibility, Accuracy, (PRIYA PLEASE FILL THE SIX ‘A’s – I don’t remember them but you had it in your email).
Naraindas Parekh from the Jain Samaj vociferously advocated the cause of inculcating cultural values in families from a young age. Kishore Ruparelia from the VHP announced the that the VHP’s book on Hinduism called ‘Explaining Hindu Dharma’ had successfully been translated into Romanian. “Unfortunate allegations have been made against VHP recently,” he concluded. “And we spent a good deal of our time bringing the true facts to light.”
Dr Bhan reported on dialogues held between Christians and Jews. He said that they were conducting intial discussions with the Muslim community too. “We are not averse to improving relations with other communities but clearly any misunderstanding should be cleared first,” he said.
My proposals to establish a Hindu communication network right up to the grass roots level to aid consultation and feedback were received with a lukewarm response. My second proposal was to set up an online database called ‘MP-watch.com’ - to monitor every single MP in Parliament and trace their ‘Hindu friendliness” in terms of Parliamentary voting and early day motions.
During lunch, Suresh Kotecha, Chairman of Balward Ltd came up to Shrien and me and said, “I felt quite inspired by what you youngsters had to say. If you need any support from me, please call me any time.”
I felt quite pleased – someone somewhere still thought I was a youngster despite the few strands of grey hair peeping through my temples – hurray!
The afternoon session meandered on with a number of speeches ending with the passing of a few resolutions.
I thought most people must at least have gone back with a clear message that Hindu organisations must work together with one voice and a common agenda. There is light at the end of the tunnel after all.