By Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand temple of Ram at Ayodhya, at the very same place where Babri Masjid built in 1528 by Mir Baqi, once stood in full grandeur. The Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, and a makeshift temple was built over the place by a violent Hindu mob in full presence of central security forces.
While Modi performed the chief ritual of the inauguration, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat was present on the right side of PM and UP chief minister Yodi Adiyanath seen next to Bhagwat. UP governor Anandiben Patel, who is a former chief minister of Gujarat, was seen standing behind the PM when he was performing ‘Aarti’, a kind of Hindu prayer before an idol.
The programme was, however, boycotted by four shankaracharyas, considered to be top religious leaders of the Hindu religion. One of the chief reasons for their opposition is that the inauguration ceremony is being given a political colour. The second reason is that the inauguration was done in violation of scriptural guidelines.
Opposition political party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi of the Congress, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and other leaders refused to attend the inauguration ceremony saying it was more a political event than a religious event.
Foreign media, particularly New York Times, described the construction of the temple on the Babri Masjid site and its inauguration by Prime Minister, as laying the foundation of the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation), a for which right-wing political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideologilca mentor RSS had been striving for decades.
According to right-wing Hindu leaders, members of the minority religion, particularly Muslims and Christians, will not have the same rights as members of the majority Hindu religion. This is what the Hindu ideologues Veer Savarkar and M S Golwalkar, proponents of Hindu Rashtra, had demanded.
The reason for the foreign media to describe the event as the sign of a future Hindu Rashtra is that the entire event was sponsored by the Government with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the chief guest in violation of the Constitution that promises secularism, meaning that the state will not have any religion and will be equidistant from all religions.
But the use of government machinery, dignitaries holding constitutional posts, use of IAF helicopters to shower flower petals on the temple and all over Ayodhya, declaration of holiday for employees of the central government and also the state governments in four BJP-ruled states as well as two opposition-ruled states (Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand) indicate that India is not slowly but fast moving towards a Hindu state.
If India is a secular state, not a Hindu rashtra, why should the central government and state governments declare holiday for their employees to attend the inauguration of a temple, no matter what is its importance?
Not only that, Modi as PM has been going around the nation and creating a narrative that the Ram temple was demolished 550 years ago by forces of Mir Baqi, commander in chief of the first Mughal ruler Babur though there is no historical evidence to it.
There is no mention of the existence of any Ram Temple in the Ram Charitmanas, the most authentic treatise on Ram. Tulsidas, who wrote his book after 1528, also did not mention that Ram temple was demolished and a masjid constructed over it. How did Tulsi, a staunch follower of Ram, forget to mention the demolition of the temple in his book?
Several Hindu liberals, members of the minority Muslim and Christian communities who will be the biggest sufferer of the Hindu Rashtra, see the indications of a Hindu Rashtra as great injustice with them and with India’s secular Constitution.
The founding fathers of the Constitution had made it very clear that India will be a secular and democratic republic in which people of all faiths will enjoy equal rights. But what is happening now under the BJP-led government at the Centre is belying the hopes of minorities and Secular and liberal Hindus.
Opposition party leaders see the inauguration of the temple by Modi as a political tool to win public support in the April-May 2024 parliamentary elections. The opposition leaders say that since Modi has no developmental work to his credit to show to the people in the elections, he is resorting to use of religious sentiments of Hindu majority to win the 2024 elections.
