When politics is religion & religion politics

Having bestowed Narendra Modi on India, the almighty tried to compensate for it by receiving Kumaraswamy in nine temples in four days

Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, once telephoned Heathrow in stormy weather to ask if his flight would take off. “God knows...” began the airport official when the prelate cut him short. “God is my business. You tell me about the aircraft!” That healthy division of labour reminds us that the clamour aroused by another archbishop, Anil Couto of Delhi, enabled the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha to slip quietly and unnoticed through the dividing line between what is god’s and what is Caesar’s.

Unlike the Ramkrishna Mission in 1986, the Mahasabha makes no attempt to deny its faith. It can declare