Ram Puniyani
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Ram Puniyani
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Rajnath Singh, the
new BJP President (Feb 2013) has brought forward the issue of Ram Temple once
again. The Sadhus associated with VHP have also proclaimed that it is on their
agenda. All the top leaders of RSS Combine are visiting the Mahakumbh, taking a
dip in the Holy Ganges and affirming the Ram Temple as the fulcrum of their all
round campaign in the wake of the forthcoming 2014 Parliamentary elections.
What is disturbing is
that after the Allahabad High Court verdict on Ayodhya, which had asked to divide
the land into three parts one each being given to the three litigants, Sunni
Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhada and Ram lalla Virajman, the matter is pending in
Supreme Court. In the wake of the judgment the RSS had asserted that Muslims
should give up their claims for the sake of the sentiments of majority. Despite
the cases pertaining to ownership of the land where the mosque is located, VHP
etc. were already asserting that no mosque will be permitted in Ayodhya. As per
VHP, mosque has to be outside the ‘Shastriya Seema’ (boundary) as given in the
Ramcharita manas (The Ram Legend, by Tulsidas) of Ayodhaya. Meaning there by
that Ayodhya is a holy place of Hindus only.
It must be made clear
that Ayodhya means (A+Yudhya: A no war zone). It is not only holy for Hindus.
Ayodhya has been a focal point of many religions, Buddhism, Jainism and
Hinduism. From about fifth century BC fairly large Buddhist community was
living in Ayodhya. Though this religion suffered a setback during first
millennium AD, several remnants of its existence did survive. According to Jain
tradition Ayodhya was the birthplace of the first and fourth Tirthankara. The
early places of Hindu worship of Ayodhya were of Shaiva or Vishnu provenance.
The specific worship of Rama even as an avatar of Vishnu is a much later
development. References to the image of Rama appear only in sixth Century.
Nawab of Awadh region, where Ayodhya is located had given land for the biggest
temple in the area, Hanuman gadhi.
Another argument
doing rounds is that state should take up the building of the Ram Temple at
Ayodhya the way Somnath temple was built by the state. Advani and many others
have been claiming that the Somnath reconstruction was done as per the decision
of the Nehru cabinet. This is a total lie. Since the public memory is too short
anything propagated repeatedly starts sounding like being true, the way
Hitler’s propaganda minister Goebbels used to do. Contrary to this; a little
peep into the recent history will show us that Indian Government had nothing to
do with the reconstruction of Somnath temple. The lie that Nehru Government had
reconstructed or supported Somnath reconstruction is a distortion of the fact
that two ministers of Nehru cabinet were involved in the reconstruction in
their personal capacity. As such when the idea of reconstructing temple at
Somnath was mooted by Sardar Patel, Gandhi who was alive at that time opined
that Hindus are themselves capable to build the temple and they don’t need
Government money or assistance for reconstruction neither should Government
give money for such a construction.
With the death of
Sardar Patel, K.M.Munshi and N.V. Gadgil, who were ministers in Nehru’s
Cabinet, took up reconstruction work at personal level. There was no question
of reconstruction proposal being passed by the Cabinet as falsely being claimed
by communal forces. After the completion of the temple for its inauguration,
the then President of India Dr. Rajedra Prasad was invited. He accepted the
invitation against the wishes of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru opined that
public officials should never publicly associate with faiths and shrines.
Today nearly two
decades after the demolition of the Babri Mosque, we have seen as to how much
damage this Ram temple campaign has done to the political scene in the
country. Unfortunately the Ayodhya Judgment has accepted faith as the
basis of the verdict. It has been challenged in the Supreme Court though. At
this moment why can’t RSS and company wait for the court verdict before
declaring it on their agenda? The real reason for this is a political one. Temple
construction has nothing to do with Hindu religion. RSS combine could demolish
the mosque and built their political strength. Starting from two MPs in Lok
Sabha in 1984 elections, as they gradually took up this issue, BJP by and by
went up to 183 MPs in Parliament in 1999 elections. The mass hysteria created
by this movement built up the BJP from a marginal outfit to the major
opposition party. After 1999, BJP gradually went declining in its electoral
strength. The present effort to revive Ram Temple issue has a calculated
strategy. The calculation may be that reviving this campaign may increase its
power and bring it to the forefront again.
But it is doubtful if
this strategy may succeed again. Two decades ago, it worked. So many years down
the line, the voter profile has changed and the newer set of youth may not be
too enamoured by the call for temple building, as the more crucial issues are
baying at them. Still there is a big appeal of emotive issues amongst a large
section of society. And RSS combine has been whipping up the emotive messages
through different programs. As outfit like RSS thrive on identity issues, Ram
Temple is their major trump card. The arguments that Ram Temple is a symbol of
our nationalism also seem to have smudged the issue in the minds of many. We
know that Indian Nationalism does not veer around the mosques and temples. It
is not a religious nationalism. In a democracy Nationalism cannot be identified
with the religions’ of the kings of the past. Even the Kings of both religions
had mixed administration anyway. One needs to come to terms with the values of
freedom struggle, which made India into a nation, based on democracy and
secularism, dump the issues of temple-mosque and grapple with the issues of livelihood
and human rights of the citizens. .
The contents of the article rest on its author.
