India Uncut

Imagine you're buying soap at a supermarket, and though you normally buy Lux, this time you pick up a bar of Camay, and a government operative stops you and says, "It is illegal to buy Camay if you are a user of Lux. Please stick to buying Lux."

Or imagine that you're a reader of the Times of India and you ask your newspaper delivery boy to stop getting ToI and get you DNA instead and he says, "Sorry, it is illegal to shift your choice of paper."

Ludicrous, no? And isn't is equally ludicrous when governments try to dictate your choice of religion? BBC reports:

Several states governed by the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, have introduced laws to make such conversions [mass conversions of Dalits] more difficult.

The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have all passed laws restricting conversions.

Gujarat has reclassified Buddhism and Jainism as branches of the Hindu religion, in an attempt to prevent conversions away from Hinduism eroding the BJP's bedrock support.

This is shocking, and it isn't as widely condemned as it should be because, I'm guessing, if a middle-class person like you or me wanted to convert, no one would stop us. Know what I mean?

Really, I wish the BJP shifted its loyalty from Hindutva to Luxutva. No more Camay! Camay users are terrorists! Yes, let's all go duly mad.

(Link via email from noumignon.)