00:01Breaking news from Dev Bhoomi, God needs bouncers now.
00:05Up there in the mountains where the air is thin and the faith is supposed to be thick,
00:09the Shri Gangotri Tamdu committee has taken a very modern decision.
00:13They have decided spirituality has become too crowded, too messy, too impure.
00:17From now on, only Hindus allowed.
00:20The logic is very simple. Ganga is pure, non-Hindus apparently are not.
00:35And the best way to protect a river that flows through states, cities, trains, sewage lines and plastic bottles
00:40is to carefully monitor who is standing near her guards. Very scientific.
00:46And this idea may not stop at Gangotri, the committee that governs Badrinath and Kedarnath
00:50are also thinking along the same lines.
00:52Because when one door closes, why not shut a few more?
01:03They say it's about maintaining sanctity.
01:05Which is interesting because sanctity has survived Mughal invasions,
01:08British rule, earthquakes, floods, landslides, plastic waste, VIP darshan queues and helicopter tourism.
01:14But a backpack over the camera? Too much.
01:16This is not satire, guys. This is policy.
01:27Now let me remind you of something we fought hard for after independence.
01:30Many temples were placed under government control so no one could be kept out
01:34because of caste, background or belief.
01:36Equality was the point. The constitution was the point.
01:39These temples are not private clubs. They are run by state appointed boards.
01:43So when they discriminate, it's not faith speaking.
01:46It's the state flirting openly with exclusion.
01:50Of course, we're told the courts will strike this down and they probably will.
01:53So this isn't really governance now, is it?
01:55This is performance art.
01:56A loud distraction from unemployment, inflation, bad roads and the small inconvenience of actually running a state.
02:02Meanwhile, Uttarakhand is busy selling Char Dham as a global spiritual destination.
02:07Come to Kedarnab, experience divinity.
02:09But terms and conditions apply.
02:11God may ask your religion first.
02:13And here is the irony.
02:14Hinduism, once open, porous, absorbing, is being repackaged as a gated community.
02:19Vasudeva Kutumbakam, we used to say, now it's members only.
02:22So tell me this, if tomorrow the governor is a Sikh, if the chief justice is not Hindu,
02:26if a foreign head of state visits, will God be unavailable that day?
02:30Or will we remember that faith does not need fences?
02:33Or that rivers do not need identity checks?
02:35Because once you start deciding who gets to stand before God,
02:38you're no longer defending faith.
02:40You are just playing politics at very high altitude.
02:43But tell us what you think.
02:45I'm Manish Hidhikari.
02:47First things fast.
02:48No.
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