HOISTING the flag at the Ram Temple after inaugurating it in January last year, Prime Minster Narendra Modi, in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak (supreme leader) Mohan Bhagwat, stated that the ceremonial gesture was a signal that Ram Temple construction was complete and that “wounds of centuries are healing.” The wounds, he said, are finding respite and centuries old resolve is getting fulfilled!
Modi asked for “…invoking Lord Ram and calling for the creation of a country that is inspired by Ram Rajya by way of “awakening Ram inside us”. There was jubilation among a section of society and his cohorts started planning for Kashi, Mathura, Sambhal and other temples.
Apart from invoking Lord Ram and hinting at the “wounds inflicted” by Muslim rulers, Prime Minister Modi also talked about the education introduced by Lord Macaulay giving “us a sense of inferiority and persistence colonial mentality.”
As Modi talked about the “wounds” of centuries having found respite by constructing the temple, the social and economic indices of society show a severe downslide and the country is witnessing a decline in the global level indices of India related to freedoms — of religion, expression, free press among others.
At the same time, Modi’s cohorts ruling in Rajasthan promoted the idea of celebration of Shaurya Divas (day of bravery) on December 6, when they (the Sangh combine) shamelessly and brazenly demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992. The day has been celebrated as Shaurya Divas by Modi’s associates in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). For them, the “constructed narrative” of Ram Temple demolition by Babar and replacing it with a mosque has been a wound inflicted on the Hindu psyche. This narrative has not been endorsed even by the Supreme Court judgement and objective analysis of the findings of Archaeological Survey of India.
The Supreme Court also stated that putting Ram Lalla idols in Babri Masjid was a crime. The VHP-RSS produced a video that showed that Lord Ram appeared in the mosque at the intervening night of December 23-24. In his classic documentary, ‘Ram Ke Naam’ (In the Name of God) filmmaker Anand Patwardhan interviewed Mahant Ram Sharan Das Shastri, who stated that he and a few others installed the idol there; they were arrested and later released on bail. As per him, the then District Magistrate KK Nayyar, who later became a Member of Parliament on a Bharatiya Jana Sangh (previous avatar of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP) ticket, was the chief support for the installation of the idols.
The Supreme Court also held that all those who were part of the demolition project were guilty. They included major divisive figures and BJP leaders, like LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharati. They were not punished. Advani’s ‘Rath Yatra’ resulted in series of anti-Muslim violence. After the demolition of Babri Masjid, scores of Muslims were killed in systematic and planned riots across the country; the most severe ones being in Mumbai, Surat and Bhopal.
The violence and consequent polarisation gave an unprecedented electoral boost to the BJP, leading to the formation of its government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After a gap of 10 years, Modi came to power with the slogan of ‘Acche Din’ (Good Days), Vikas (Development) and getting back black money from abroad and giving Rs 15 lakh to everybody from that, apart from creating two crore jobs every year.
All the promises were jumlas (deceptive slogans), as conceded by Modi’s second-in-command, Amit Shah. The common people are undergoing severe economic deprivation, as majority of people have to satisfy themselves with free 5kg ration (foodgrains).
Now, Prime Minister Modi must be happy that the narrative created by the RSS combine, aided by the compliant media, has captured the imagination of a large number of people among diverse sections of society, and they can happily declare it as the advent of Ram Rajya.
Little do they realise that Modi’s politics is all word play. Lord Ram is seen by many people in their own way. Saint-poet Kabir saw him as a universal spirit. The greatest Hindu of 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi, commented in 1929 that by Ram Rajya he does not mean Hindu Raj. “I mean by ‘Ram Rajya’ the Divine Raj, the Kingdom of God … For me Rama and Rahim are one and the same deity”.
Modi’s ‘Ram Rajya’ is based on hatred of the followers of Rahim. Its system misses the very concept of justice. The Allahabad court’s judgement in the Ayodhya issue was based on popular conception, which was constructed by massive propaganda, that Lord Ram was born there. The 1885 judgements of the courts had declared that the land belongs to the Sunni Waqf Board. The Supreme Court Chief Justice (DY Chandrachud) gave the verdict based not on legal criterion but on “instructions of the Lord”, who, he said, appeared in his dream.
Today, contrary to we being a secular state, where government officials are supposed to leave religious matters to religious people, our “non-biological” prime minister assumes the role of priest and ruler at the same time! ‘Yogi and the commissar’ rolled into one.
Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, had inaugurated the rebuilt Somnath Temple. He did it in his personal capacity, not as president of the republic.
Gandhi’s disciple Nehru redefined the ‘temples of state’ while inaugurating the Bhakra Nangal dam, when he said irrigation projects were the “temples of Modern India”.
With the present dispensation, revivalism of temples has become a major State project. Though the RSS chief did state that we should not look for Shivling under every mosque, the process of unearthing Shivlings underneath every mosque is on, as the country’s policies ignore the core social problems of equity and justice.
Civilisational injustice to the marginalised sections is waiting to be addressed in the real sense, as the ruling dispensation wants to undermine the Indian Constitution, which aims that we march toward ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Social Justice.’
————
Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and a former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
