"When, in 1995, a team of scientists announced that the phenomena of Lord Ganesha’s statues sipping milk was not some wondrous miracle but plain physics, no Hindu drew out a dagger in protest and no FIRs were lodged against the men of science who had debunked this show of power from one of the most popular Gods of the religion.
In March 2012, Sanal Edamaruku, founder president of Rationalist International, had no such luck." Ref:http://www.thesundayindian.com/...
This is an update to the Diary "India Skeptic Faces Arrest 4 Busting Catholic Miracle" posted by me onTue Apr 24, 2012 at 03:16 PM PDT.
IN REVIEW: A claim of religious outrage was filed some three weeks ago against Dr. Sanal Edamaruku who has sought to develop scientific thinking, the spirit of inquiry, reform, and humanism IN INDIA by exposing supernatural claims by Indian Godmen & other Fakirs.
The outrage claimed by the priest of Our Lady of Velankanni Church, and representatives of the piously incensed Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC) has demanded that Edamaruku publicly apologize for having the audacity to say out loud that water flowing from a statue in their church was a leak in the sewage system and NOT — as the Indian media and the Church had loudly proclaimed — a miracle.
Dr.Edamaruku has flatly refused to surrender to their demands...Instead he proposed that the authorities of the church of Velankanni at Mumbai should publicly apologize for distributing the dirty drainage water that was dripping from the cross to hundreds of gullible people. Advertising a natural phenomenon as a “miracle” to attract devotees and promoting them to drink unchecked dirty water claiming it had curative properties is an irresponsible act - and should be a punishable offense, too." Ref: Rationalist International Bulletin... so they filed a blasphemy case against him under existing Indian law."The HINDU" news opinion page states,"Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Indian Constitution."
Dr. Edamaraku is a victim of India's god laws — colonial-era legislation obliging the state to punish those who offend the faith of others.
"Section 295A Section 295A, outlaws “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class”. Alarmingly, given the sweeping generalities in which these laws are written, truth is not an admissible defense & In the decades since Indian Independence, these laws have been regularly used to hound intellectuals and artists who questioned religious beliefs.
Islamic chauvinists have shown the same enthusiasm for the secular state's god laws as their Sikh and Hindu counterparts. Earlier this year, FIRs were filed against four writers who read out passages from Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses — a book that is wholly legal in India
Now the Catholic church is engaging in what is ,seemingly a vendeta against , Dr. Edamaraku.
Earlier, in 1957, the Indian Supreme Court placed some limits on 295A saying it “does not penalise any and every act of insult to or attempt to insult the religion”. Instead, it “only punishes the aggravated form of insult to religion perpetrated with deliberate and malicious intention.” The court shied away, though, from the key question, of what an insult to religion actually was."
"Perhaps Indians can congratulate themselves that the god laws have not been used to persecute and kill religious dissenters, as the ever-expanding blasphemy laws which sprang up in Pakistan. Mr. Edamaruku's case ought to make clear, though, just where things are inexorably headed. If Indians wish to avoid the fate of the dystopia to the country's west, its citizens desperately need to accept the right of critics to attack, even insult, what they hold dear." Ref:http://www.thehindu.com/...
Also to be noted as written in the Rationalist International Bulletin (http://www.rationalistinternational.net/) is: "On 11th of April, charges under Section 295 A, Indian Penal Code, have been filed against Sanal Edamaruku in at least three Mumbai police stations: in Juhu, in MIDC and in Andheri. Strangely, he did not receive any official document about these cases up to now. The Mumbai police refuse flatly to send copies of the complaints to Delhi – an unusual violation of the standard procedure. Sanal did not receive any summons either. Till today, there is nothing official about it - except the phone calls of an inspector from Juhu police station, who urges Sanal to come and get arrested." Ref:https://webmail.iu.edu/...
'While his lawyers are preparing to defend his right to promote reason and scientific temper and to expose fraudulent claims of “miracles” of any – including Catholic – origin, Sanal Edamaruku has made it clear that as a law-abiding citizen he was ready to address the charges brought against him in front of any court of law or investigating officer – PROVIDE A PROPER SUMMONS WAS ISSUED AGAINST HIM. However, he absolutely refused to comply with the bishop’s demand and apologize or withdraw any of his statements made in a TV-9 debate.
The Catholic authorities continue to make accusatory references to Dr. Edamaraku despite the situation that he has been put into wherein seemingly he can NOT make official legal retort to the the Catholic made charges against him until he has been properly served. Certainly an unreasonable situation IMO since he has been put at risk of a possible three year in jail term as well as legal costs. As pointed out in The HINDU "India's god laws fail the test of reason" also.
Harrassment of Dr. Edamaruku, IMO, should be brought to a rapid termination.