5th August is a date which has a connotation of solving 2 of the most long-standing conflicting issues in modern India. Last year i.e. 2019 on this day abrogation (in its essence and not technically) of article 370 and article 35A came into effect. This year, the bhumi poojan of long-awaited Ram Mandir (verdict for which came in November last year) has been performed. Now, there are certain common themes in both issues. From a bird’s eye view, both the issues have a strong ideological divide. But, if we take a closer view also, mostly we would find lot of nuances and subtle propaganda.
First set of folks who call themselves ‘Social Justice Warriors (SJWs)’ have been always at the forefront of building a narrative on these issues for decades through all possible mediums. Some of them taught students in universities about the greatness of Article 370 and ‘Idea of India’, few wrote opinion pieces in newspapers ranging from local, national and international newspapers about how communal is the idea of having a Ram Temple in Ayodhya as that would make this country a theocratic state with Hindus as supremacist community. Then there were few who presented papers in conferences and in journals about how these two issues are essential components of something they call the ‘Hindutva Project’ of BJP & Sangh Parivar. There were few more who made cartoons and magazine covers to help the Indian society of more than 1.3 billion people learn about the ills of Indian thought process and they all have been manipulated by some utopian thought of Ram Temple and revocation of Article 370, what they call as Postmodernism or sometimes they might use even fancier words. This is an essential right as only cartoonists know as to how society is in such a mess and only their cartoons can help to bring things to normal. And of course, the most erudite of all these folks, ‘Journalists’ came with ‘news’ as to what their Uber driver thinks, or what their maid thinks, or what their milkman thought about these 2 issues because 3 persons can represent the thought of 1.3 billion people (but remember 37 % votes in a General Election of India cannot represent India as they say). And at the end, there are glamorous people who through their movies try to teach that what havoc has majority community created in this country.
Second set of folks who many people call ‘right-wingers’ but their nick-name which is more popular is ‘Fascists’. It’s just that these are such fascists who can be called ‘fascists’ by all folks day in and out in social media, in debates, in news articles, etc. Sometimes, I wonder if ‘Fascists’ is some normal adjective which can be used without the risk of any action coming on your way. These are those people who usually don’t teach anyone as they are still illiterate in doing propaganda which the other set has done mastery over. But this set of people usually react in are known for their catharsis in terms of their anger, their crying eyes, their abuses when provoked. It is not that their reaction is like this by their choice, it’s just that their reaction to most of their issues is full of emotions flowing like water flows after dam breaks and they don’t know other ways of reacting in a suave manner.
Now just to come out clearly, it’s not a question of what is right or wrong from a self-constructed piece of morality through which some ‘intellectuals’ authenticate and distribute the credentials and certificates to everyone based on what score the individuals have got in the graph with measuring scales of y-axis being ‘Liberalism’ and the x-axis being ‘Secularism’ which I call as Li-Se scale. It is only about whether you respect the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in case of Ram Temple or not. It is only about whether you are following constitutional morality or not and if yes, then is there any constitutional irregularity in case of revocation of Art. 370 and Art. 35 A. If there was any, the Supreme Court would have struck it down till now. Just by whims and fancies, one-act or law does not become unconstitutional as usually, some people claim every day. But as we are still not a communist or fascist dictatorship (which many liberals and leftists admire), anyone is able to call anything as ‘unconstitutional’ without any legal proceedings against them. As the saying goes, when you have a habit of getting extra privileges of doing propaganda, the level playing field for ideas to clash feels like discrimination.
To understand it from a wider perspective, if we see the events of the last couple of weeks, especially after it was announced that our Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi is going for bhumi pooja. After the announcement, there started the game of shouting battle. All people who score high on Li-Se scale started a competition among themselves to show as to who is a bigger follower of something called as ‘Idea of Babur’ and to be honest, it was a fascinating show. As one of their ‘great’ leaders Ravish Kumar says, which I am paraphrasing, sometimes it is not about fighting for victory but about fighting just to show the presence of opposite forces in the battleground. So, all of the high scorers in the Li-Se scale wanted to show their presence even after the verdict of the battle.
Here are some logic given by them as to why Modi should not visit Ayodhya for bhumi pooja. Now, there could be counter-opinions on the same based on certain facts.
- How can the PM of a secular country go for a religious event? This is a path to ‘Hindu-Rashtra’.
- But Iftar Parties were hosted in Rashtrapati Bhavan for many years. PM Indira Gandhi visited Deoband for centenary celebrations of the seminary in 1979. Even PM Modi visited the celebrations of Doudi Bohra community in Indore. There are many such events like these in the past.
2. How can a national broadcaster do a live coverage of a religious event? This is wrong use of institutional machinery.
- But live coverage was done by national broadcasters even when Pope John Paul II visited India. Also, Christmas celebrations in Vatican City have been covered live.
3. Ayodhya is a disputed site, so why should the PM visit there for bhumi poojan? The Govt is doing propaganda.
- Sorry, but it is no more a disputed site (as many historians would have liked it to be like that for years to come) as the highest court of India has given a final verdict on this.
4. The PM can go there as an individual, why is he going as a PM? As the leader of the country, he is not supposed to be favouring any community.
- But, how is going to a religious event favours one community? Also, does it mean that when a person becomes PM, he / she is expected to shed all of his or her religious beliefs and faith? If that is true, then have the past leaders in this country followed the same or was expected from them?
5. The country is affected by COVID-19 and the PM is going to Ayodhya. He should be focussing on the pandemic.
- Are both things mutually exclusive? How is going to Ayodhya for 2 hours or so will in any way dilute the efforts against COVID-19 pandemic? Is this just a rhetoric statement or has any practical implications.
6. What is the need for bhumi poojan now?
- Well, that is the upto the authorities of Ram Temple there. You cannot make a decision as per your thoughts, there are people who are supposed to take decisions like this as it is part of their job responsibility.
All these arguments given against the bhumi poojan and PM attending that event are laughable at best and stupid without any sense of knowledge at worst. The community has waited for more than 500 years for this day. It goes without saying that Ayodhya means to Hindus what the Vatican means to Christians, or Mecca means to Muslims or Jerusalem means to Jews. So, showing so much contempt on this just shows the presence of visceral hatred for the majority community in India by the Le-Si high scorers.
I personally do not understand the nuances of religion much as I am not a practicing religious person, but I definitely know that crores of people in India have deep emotions for Lord Ram and his birthplace and I don’t really see that it just comes from the faith on god, it also comes from the cultural ethos and civilizational identity of this country which Li-Se high scorers might never be able to fathom. Their provocation, anger, and all slogans can at best excite some young blood in certain college campuses, as it is natural for youngsters to be full of energy and attitude of changing society. But by doing so, the inherent nature of a society cannot be changed. This judgement was also accepted by the community on the other side i.e. Muslims as a larger part of all communities wanted this issue to be settled as winning and losing are not the only sides of this issue. There is another side, which is ‘closure’. But, this was definitely not something which can be welcomed by Li-Se high scorers as their all verticals of multi-million dollar conflict entrepreneurship would suffer a big blow.
Fortunately, the luck of this country was better than these conflict entrepreneurs who did not get a chance to spread their venom in the minds of upcoming generations. Although, they will fight to show their presence in the battleground like their leader Ravish says, even after the verdict, the chances of their propaganda to become successful is less. Some historians are going to write deceitful and concocted stories to accentuate the narrative about what happened in Modi’s regime. Some research scholars of some universities will shout slogans: ‘Babur Hum Sharminda Hain…’ and so on and so forth. But this day marks the melting of all illusions and hallucinations of these so-called ‘liberals’ of India and it is a great day for the country in that way.
Featured Pic Credit: OpIndia.com