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THE NUNS OF DURG! By Dr Oscar Rebello
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THE NUNS OF DURG! By Dr Oscar Rebello

Aug 09-Aug 15, 2025, INFOCUS August 8, 2025 , by

WE are all steeped in the controversy of how two middle-aged nuns from Kerala, accompanying three Christian tribals who admitted so of their own accord, were humiliated, accosted and unceremoniously tossed behind bars.
Two innocent nuns, who have probably never harmed a fly, facing their worst nightmare because a horde of state-protected Bajrang Dal activists, led by an obnoxious Jyoti Sharma, hauled these innocents over the coals with complete immunity — including unflinching state immunity.
Remember the names of those two nuns, Preethi Merry and Vandana Francis, who displayed admirable grace in adversity, in that now circulated video.
Not a word.
Not a sneer.
Importantly,
Not a tear.
Remember those names, since they otherwise become a statistic, once this outrage abates.
So will I, the most reviled Nastik of Goa, defending Christianity in the Boondocks.
Not at all!!
I don’t speak for those nuns because they are Christians.
I speak for them because bail is a stupid exercise on the face of it. Instead, all charges need to be dropped against them and the Bajrang Dal goons should be put in the slammer.
As a human race, we are at our most despicable, horrifying nadir.
We elevate, celebrate and felicitate the Bullies on the Planet.
Put them on gilded thrones of Power.
And those who stand up and defend Innocents across the world are vilified, sanctioned, jailed, or bumped off.
The whole world, as Miriam Margoyles says, is now Hitler’s world.
The evil Nazi must be smiling from his bunker in hell, while he caresses his beloved Eva Braun.
A century later, the guy won out.
His ideology of the bully, chasing the Innocents down the rabbit hole and then gassing them, plays across all the TV screens and smart phones in our modern world.
So the key to understanding this social malady is not to view this through a religious or regional prism.
As civil society, all we need to react to is Innocents vs Bullies.
That’s all.
No religion can be said to be pristine.
True, some Christian pastors make it their mission to convert ignorants through allurement and fraud.
And necessarily ask them to dump their original religion.
True, some Islamic mullahs
call for the slaying of infidels and seek to convert folk so that the world may end up in Allah’s kingdom.
And of course, Hindutva bigots have taken their bigotry to a level on steroids these days.
Vigilantism, Vandalism and utter Villainy.
But it is the Innocents that we should focus on.
Not merely defending our individual faiths, beliefs or sense of injured nationhood.
The nuns were innocent, being subject to bullies.
That Muslim scrap dealer or meat seller, lynched by violent mobs merely because of his religion, was innocent, and terrified by Hindu bullies.
The Indians in Australia or Ireland, being mercilessly hacked to near-death because of the colour of their skin, are innocent—bullied by racist whites.
Go further, go Global.
Whatever your politics, Ukrainians are innocents, being relentlessly pounded by the Russian Regime.
And oh Yes, I love Israel as a country for all its ingenuity, innovation and supreme intelligence, and l agree that Hamas is beyond the pale of barbarism and Evil. But the children, women and displaced of Gaza are totally innocent, for Heaven’s sake.
Bibi and his murderous cohorts are Bullies, no question, whatever their namby-pamby objectives.
And good old Orange-head Trump was, is, and always will be, a Bully!!
All our Bhakts loved him, because he was viscerally anti-Islam. But the moment he turned on India, as all bullies do because they never have permanent friends, enemies or convictions, the right-wing ecosystem in our country has begun to abhor him.
Innocence cannot be selective.
And neither can a Bully be a good friend.
Ever!!
Come closer to home .
What was it that triggered your outrage against Vishwajeet Rane in the famous l’affaire Rudresh?
It was simply a Bully, targeting an innocent.
Period.
Bullies have thrived in Africa, Latin America, and in various Islamic republics for generations now.
We didn’t attach much importance to them. Who really cared what happened in Nigeria or Chile or Azerbaijan?
But now that global democracies are coming into the thrall of Bullies (a.k.a Dictators, Despots, Dominators, whatever) the fire has finally reached our “cojones,” and we all feel the heat.
So unless we stand up for all the innocents of the world, and not just for our own special brand of innocents, the march of brutal and heartless dictatorships will only get that much stronger, move that much faster, and become ever more victorious.
Bullies will win and
Democracy and civil society will collapse.
The equation is that simple.
For those two nuns who resisted the bullying and had every section of society standing up for them, kudos and a big shout out.
But remember this: whatever denomination you belonged to in your defence of the two nuns,
you did not defend two Christians,
You defended two innocents.
And that’s True Victory!!

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