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It is one thing to celebrate success. But to make an “in-your-face” statement is quite another.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a devout Hindu, an ardent worshiper of Lord Ram, and all other Hindu deities. My happiness, on the occasion of the consecration of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, knows no bounds. I truly admire and appreciate the eagerness, hard work, grit, sincerity, professionalism, and sense of purpose organizers of the ceremony carry with them. The event has been a marvelous example of good, comprehensive planning, and near-perfect execution.
By and large it has remained clear of controversies, barring odd, modern-age, commando-comic media personnel asking people of muslim community – “what will you do on 22nd January?”, only to hear back the most simple, yet appropriate to the core answer – “the same as what I did on 21st, and will do on 23rd”. 🙂
So what turned it into a “larger than everything” event? The answer is – India goes into general elections in less than 3 months.
Everyone can see it. Indian politics is intertwined with religion, this is established. In fact, there is no such thing as “pure politics”. It is, rather has to be, hyphenated with some other factor, be it religious, economic, social, geographical, or even a complex mix of these. So there is no reason why the current Indian political establishment does it any differently.
They are only helped by “shooting in the foot” act by Congress. Only if they had attended the ceremony, it may have been less political.
So what was “in-the-face”? Was it not just a grand celebration of a grand milestone, which has the potential to be etched in human history forever?
Sadly, not.
When Prime Minister said, “They threatened to burn it down, if a temple would ever be built at this site”, he was referring to some provocative statements made by members of Islam community, several years ago, long before the Supreme Court judgement was pronounced. After the case was ruled in favour of the Hindus group, the other side has really acted with unprecedented grace, showing to the world how a nation with a “major-minority” group honours rule of law and lives in harmony.
On the contrary, the statement of RSS chief, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat, was constructive, inflicting responsibility on citizens as well, not just on administration, in a state of Ram Rajya.
My point is, if there has been graceful acceptance of an unfavourable judgement, it needs to be backed by an even more graceful acknowledgement of a favourable judgement.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.