by Deepa BHOOKHUN

How do you know if anything is right or wrong? How do you know if something is moral or not? I bet you have the wrong answer to these questions. The correct - and only right and moral - answer to these fundamental questions is simple; ask a religious man.

Whether he?s a ?priest? or ?maulana? or ?pandit? or whatever, if he?s a man of religion, he will have the correct answer and will be able to guide you.

Which is why I have had this marvellous idea; why don?t we codify the Vedas, the Quran, the Bible and whatever other religious scriptures and make them laws? I mean, why ever not? It would make everyone happy, wouldn?t it? Then, at least, we would be sure we?d always make the right choice. It would also rid us of the displeasure of religious associations and we could finally all live happily forever and ever.

Oh no, there might be a little problem with this otherwise brilliant idea of mine; what are we going to do with atheists and people who believe in God but don?t believe in religions? Oh shall we exterminate them? Deport them? Or maybe we could allow them to remain here but this permission should be conditional to them keeping their mouths shut and not having a say in anything of national importance.

But hang on a minute; isn?t our country a secular one? It?s just that it?s so easy to forget this tiny detail, isn?t it, religious lobbies being what they are in this country.

You must forgive me for having momentarily lost my bearings. This whole sodomy business has left me at my wits? end.

When I learnt that Government had it in mind to legalise sodomy, I was so relieved. Not for the reasons you think-see, I?m reading your mind but you?re not following! Anyway, I was relieved because I thought at long last, we will be taking a step away from hypocrisy; that, at long last, this country would realise it needed to be in line with the broadening of fundamental human rights practised elsewhere; that, at long last, Government would be sending the right signals by getting rid of a law that is obsolete because it is not enforced.

But little did I know, did I?

Government?s resolve weakened the minute religious associations, narrow-minded people and hypocrites started raising their voices to say ?No? to sodomy. Instead of reasoning with them and explain that such a move had absolutely nothing to do with a loss of values, Government back-pedalled.

I won?t even get into the whole business of the presumptuousness of those know-it-alls that makes them think they can think for others. All I want to understand is how what somebody else is doing in the privacy of his/her bedroom is any of their business?

Government says it wants consensus. They might as well forget it; they won?t get consensus. This is precisely why there are the leaders and there are the ?others?. Leaders make decisions.

Others are forever scared.