The Indian Christian Voice (ICV) is angry with Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali for showing holy Cross in his advertisement of promoting Swadeshi good.
In a statement against the move by Patanjali , ICV’s President Abraham Mathai told IANS:
“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 We demand that this commercial should be immediately withdrawn from all public domains.”
The Patanjali advertisement shows three Crosses while hinting at the British rule over India.
The symbol was made not by Patanjali, but by East India Company when it had occupied India.
But ICV believes that the advertisement is an attack on the Christian community of India. Here is the advertisement by Patanjali:
ICV is the same organization that worked against PA Sangma in 2012 when he was running for the post of Indian President in 2012. He was opposed on the grounds that he was an NDA candidate which had BJP, in it.
Indian Christian Voice President even asked the Catholics to ask the Pope to excommunicate Sangma for befriending such groups which allegedly orchestrated anti-Christian pogroms in India.
Sangma was accused of a ‘total betrayal of Christianity’ by the ICV.
ICV was also on the forefront against Hrithik Roshan when he had tweeted that he had more chances of having an affair with the Pope than the ladies that the media was mentioning.
Ther r more chances of me having had an affair with d Pope dan any of d (Im sure wonderful)women d media hs ben naming.Thanks but no thanks.
— Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) January 28, 2016
This infuriated the ICV which said that this hurt its sentiments!
Interestingly, Baba Ramdev has often spoken out against Sonia Gandhi calling her a staunch Christian in the past.
The Hindu nationalist government of India has however tried to get closer to the minority Christian community and soon Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is going to go to Vatican to see the canonization of Christian Missionary Mother Teresa. Earlier, Narendra Modi was speculated to be leading the delegation despite strong objections of RSS which had claimed that Mother Teresa worked for conversions and did not do real service.
Patanjali also infuriated Muslim leaders in the past
Interestingly Patanjali has also earned ire of the Muslim clerics and has been slapped by many Fatwas including the one for using cow urine in its products. Dargah-e-Ala Hazrat in Bareilly, which slapped a Fatwa against Pokemon Go and KFC, had issued a Fatwa against the use of Patanjali products for allegedly containing cow urine. Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TMTJ) had also issued Fatwa against Patanjali and termed it haram for the Muslims.
