I refer to the delightful article, "The politics of the Census" (September 5) by Devangshu Datta. As usual his analysis is superb but I cannot agree with some of his comments on atheists. Being an atheist for nearly 60 years (since the time I gave up Hinduism), and having watched the count of atheists in successive censuses, I have some opinion on this issue.
Datta has written that "atheists can be highly religious". I do not agree with this at all. An atheist Hindu is simply not possible. It is a contradiction in terms. Atheists do not believe in the existence of God. And no religion fits atheists. Buddhism does not believe in God. But such people are known as Buddhists. They follow Buddha. Atheists do not follow any procedure and are free from all religious thoughts and procedures.
Datta has taken the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Communist Party of India as atheists. This is a wrong postulate. There are some hard-core communists, who do not believe in God, but the millions of them, known as cadre of communists, are from all religions. Does he mean to say that the Muslims, who supported the CPI(M), are also atheists? The 25 million votes polled that he has referred to, belong to the parties of CPI(M), CPI, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and all. But they are not atheists. For them the following story applies more.
In the Kalighat temple some CPI(M) members were offering puja and they were heard saying in their prayer, "Ma Kali, please destroy our class enemy".
Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, New Delhi
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