The Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, several similar organisations, Uttar Pradesh government and to a great extent the Prime Minister’s Office, are in full gear in reaching out to the people at large to give an impression that it is only due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and these organisations that the Ram Temple is coming up in Ayodhya.
The construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya is no doubt an important event, for not just devout Hindus, but for most Indians, irrespective of their religion, caste, creed or political leanings. But a narrative is being created that some sections of the society and some political parties are opposed to the construction of the Ram Temple, which is far from the truth. No political party or religious group has opposed the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, though many sane voices have been raised to state that it is not the duty of a government to construct religious places or to take over the management of the inaugural function of a place of worship. They have also pointed out that it is not the duty of the prime minister or the state’s chief minister to inaugurate or engage in the consecration ceremony of a holy place. But saner voices have no value in a largely insane society, or their voices are muzzled.
Consecration (pran pratishtha) has to be done at the hands of a holy person and not by a politician or a leader, and definitely not at the hands of a person who has failed to follow the Raj Dharma, the duty of a head of state or government. Modi has time and again failed to do so, with the then prime minister and revered BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee even stating specifically that Modi should follow Raj Dharma, while handling the situation in Gujarat, where Modi was the chief minister during the communal riots that started from Godhra and spread to the entire state. Now he has failed in his Raj Dharma of creating jobs and controlling inflation, among other things.
The construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is being carried out by Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and the opening of the temple and its consecration should have been at the hands of either a revered priest or by one or all the four Shankaracharyas, not by the prime minister. According to reports, the construction of the temple is not complete yet and will not be completed before January 22, the scheduled date for the inauguration of the new temple. It would have been the best to inaugurate the temple, which is dedicated to the infant Ram, on Ramnavmi, the birth anniversary of Lord Ram, which falls on March 30, this year. But there is likelihood of the Election Model Code of Conduct coming into effect, preventing ministers from being involved in activities like inauguration of places in their official capacity. Modi is keen on launching the Ayodhya temple to impress voters in the name of Hindutva. With most election promises broken, there is little left for Modi and BJP to seek the support of the voters, till a new slogan is found to win them over. Right now Ram is the biggest issue to keep the believers in Hindutva supporting Modi and his party.
For 40 years, Lord Ram has come to the aid of the BJP, with the party using his name and the people’s faith in him, to win over the electorate, to come to power and efforts are on to use his name in the 2024 general elections too.
Modi is known to come up with gimmicks that keep the gullible population of the country opiated. Unfortunately, that section of the population did not get glued to what was probably the only constructive campaign, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the cleanliness drive. That campaign went to the dogs and has remained in selfie-points set in various parts of the country, with a cut-out of Modi with a broom.
He made people bang plates (thali bajao) to drive away the Covid virus. This is in contrast to the thali bajao campaign in the late ’60s and ’70s run by leaders like Ahiya Rangnekar, Tara Reddy and Mrinal Gore, to awaken the government on the issue of rising prices of essential commodities.
Modi made people light candles too, to drive away the virus. Now, his party members are moving around the country in every village, town and every suburb of cities with a copper pot on the heads of women, telling the members of the public that those “holy pots” (kalash) would be sent to Ayodhya. In many of the rallies there were on an average seven pots and each pot must be costing around Rs 3,000, given the size.
According to the Census of India, there were 6,64,369 villages in the country. Presuming that just one such pot has come from only four lakh villages, the cost of the pots would be Rs 120 crore. It is anybody’s guess whether minimum four lakh such pots would reach Ayodhya. The pots may vanish into thin air, the way the bricks collected from all over the country for the construction of the temple vanished.
The hijackers of Hinduism decide that their interpretation of Ramayana or their perceived beliefs should be accepted by all Hindus. A case in point is to believe that Ram, a Kshatriya, was a vegetarian. The BJP leaders and activists have flayed Nationalist Congress Party legislator from Maharashtra Jitendra Awhad, for stating on a public platform that Ram was a meat-eater. The protestors should be reminded that such statements have come from many in the past, including Pramod Madhwaraj, who is now with the BJP in Karnataka.
The author is a senior journalist and media trainer. He tweets at @a_mokashi
