An incisive piece by @leelajacinto for France 24 on the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and a difficult one to read.
A stone carver from Rajasthan, his passport taken on arrival. A colleague, Mohan Lal, who asked to be taken to a hospital and was kept in a trailer until he died. More than a hundred men freed by an FBI raid in 2021, most of them Dalit, most classified by BAPS as religious volunteers, most paid around a dollar an hour. Last year the DOJ closed the criminal investigation without charges and without explanation.
@SunitaSunitaV of Hindus for Human Rights puts it rightly: a case dismissed is not a case answered. No apology has ever been offered to these men. And the class action has not gone away. The civil wage-theft claim remains intact and is moving forward.
Shocking that these allegations were not considered while deciding whether the Indian government should play an active role in the inauguration of this new BAPS temple in France.
https://t.co/aHdb8Q85nf
“sections of the Swaminarayan Sampraday place themselves above other Hindus with an almost Abrahamic conviction that they possess the final truth.
BAPS cannot invoke the Hindu identity when attacked, distance itself from Hinduism when convenient, and then leave ordinary Hindus to absorb the resulting prejudice.”
Publicly humiliating your helper over an honest mistake on her first flight is bad enough. Doing it on camera knowing she can’t even object without fearing for her job is pure exploitation.
The terror on her face says everything. Unbelievably toxic.
A generation of “let’s build an app for this” has led to this. Digital India has been unfortunately not been inclusive.
So many times I’ve had to ask founders, “Why?”
“I beg you sir, I will touch your feet and pray….please give me two bags of urea.
I don’t have sons, I don’t know how to do it.
Please give me one bag at least sir”!!!
The wailing man is a farmer from Rangampet, Kolcharam Mandal, Medak District, Telangana.
He is begging the PACS staff to help him with urea.
Ever since the Telangana Congress government moved the fertilizer booking process to a Mobile App, many are struggling.
First, you need a smartphone to do it and the internet connectivity for the same.
Plus, you need to learn how to do it.
Most people this age only know how to use mobiles for calls…and some high-strung Babu, from the comfort of his AC chamber thought “urea booking App”, is the smartest way!!!