When I finished listening to Iran’s grand Ayatollah express his worldview last week, I felt a profound, immeasurable sense of relief that there is no likelihood ever of some Shankaracharya ruling India. The minuscule possibility of our holy men gaining importance outside their temples died with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hopes of ruling India in the foreseeable future. All that the BJP has been able to do anyway is tear down the odd mosque or set up the odd ‘sena’ in the name of poor old Ram. Praise be to the heathen gods who oversee our beloved Bharat Mata that there is not a single religious leader who could pull in the crowds the Ayatollah Khamenei did.

As someone who has watched with wonder and admiration the brave protests in the streets of Iran’s cities, I felt that I needed to listen carefully to what the Ayatollah had to say. So I sat glued to my television for all of the two hours that he droned on and on about Iran’s ‘spirituality’ and the ‘arrogant’ Western powers who he identified as the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. At the end of his speech I concluded that whatever India’s problems, and they are huge, we are very lucky not to have any of our supposed holy men guiding our political destiny. What bad luck for Iran to have such an extraordinary political movement squashed by someone who claims to speak for Allah. It’s hard to believe that Allah would approve of a totalitarian theocracy but who dares question those who speak in his name? Who would dare ask Ayatollah Khamenei what building a nuclear bomb has to do with ‘spirituality’ or God.

... contd.