Christians condemn Patanjali's 'holy Cross' commercials

The Indian Christian Voice (ICV) on Tuesday condemned yoga guru Baba Ramdev for a TV commercial which depicts the holy Cross while urging Indians to boycott all foreign products.

While the Christian community has no objections to Baba Ramdev's boycott call, it is unhappy over the use of the holy Cross to show British rule in India.

"We strongly object to the depiction of the holy Cross, the very symbol of the Christian faith. We feel this is Baba Ramdev's agenda of targeting a particular minority community. We demand that this commercial should be immediately withdrawn from all public domains," ICV President Abraham Mathai told IANS.

Such demagoguery would definitely result in increased attacks on churches and Christian institutions in India, Mathai pointed out.

He added that ICV was writing to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other concerned officials and departments on the objectionable commercial.

The latest commercial shows a black-and-white clip depicting the pre-Independence 'Swadeshi' movement and suddenly zooms to a map of India with three crosses jutting out in three directions.

Between the crosses the words E, I and Co. are shown to represent the East India Company which subsequently paved the way for British colonial rule in India.

The ICV chief said that by obliquely singling out a particular minority community would make them vulnerable to hate attacks and extremism.

"All Indians of all communities have been living harmoniously side by side for centuries. The last thing we need is someone trying to make us a 'one-religion' country. Baba Ramdev and his followers would do well to understand the beauty of Indian democracy and brotherhood," Mathai said.

--IANS

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