In
one divisive stroke on 5 August 2020, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra
Modi, destroyed all that was sacred and secular to the people of India. He
participated in the ‘bhoomi pujan’ (laying the foundation stone) of the Ram
Mandir ; in doing so he sent the nation a loud and clear message that the
Constitution of India (which enshrines some of the greatest of values) no
longer matters, for India has now become the ‘Hindutva Republic’.
Siddharth
Varadarajan, the well-known political
analyst and editor of ‘The Wire’ says it all in a very erudite and hard-hitting
YouTube presentation (which is going viral) ‘Demolition Men Do Not Build
Nations’. Varadarajan says,
“What do you
do if you belong to a political party that never fought for India’s freedom
against the British? You will fabricate a new history and a new set of dates so
that the importance of August 15 is downplayed. That is precisely what Narendra
Modi did when he tried to compare August 5- the date he laid the foundation for
the Sangh parivar’s temple in Ayodhya – with the freedom struggle! In reality,
August 5 will go down in history as a day that celebrates the triumph of
vandalism and destruction over renewal and regeneration, crime and illegality
over law and justice, fiction and fabrication over reality and truth.”
Varadarajan
was referring to the Prime Minister’s presence at the ‘bhoomi pujan’ and his
speech which followed in which Modi said, “
Friends,
several generations devoted themselves completely during our freedom struggle.
There was never a moment during the period of slavery that there was not a
movement for freedom. There was not a place in our country where sacrifices
were not made for the freedom. 15th August is the embodiment of sacrifices of the
lakhs of people and a deep yearning for the independence.
Similarly, several generations
have made self-less sacrifices for several centuries for the construction of
the Ram Temple. Today marks the culmination of that centuries-old penance,
sacrifices and resolve. There was sacrifice, dedication and resolve during the
movement for the construction of the Ram Temple and that dream is being
realized today because of their sacrifices and struggle. I, on behalf of the
130 crore people of the country, salute them and bow before them for their
sacrifices which have led to the foundation of the Ram Temple. Today, all the
powers of the Universe, everybody who was involved in the sacred struggle for
the construction of the Ram Temple, are watching this programme. They are all
very happy and blessing this occasion”.
The freedom struggle reflected
all that was sacred and secular in India: the blood, sweat , toil and tears of
millions of Indians who belonged to and represented the rich pluralistic fabric
of the country in which the ideals of the Constitution are sacrosanct, have
virtually come to naught thanks to the presence of the Prime Minister at the
‘bhoomi pujan’. It would have certainly won him brownie points among the
‘bhakts’ and will surely become a ‘key item’ to garner votes in future
hustings! But that is not what the idea of India is all about; it is not what a
nation which is set to leap into modernization, should be flaunting. It is
setting the clock back several years; when Governments and so-called leaders
are unable to deliver on governance and respond to the cries of the people,
what they the ordinary people is ‘religion’ full of trappings as is painfully
evident in the PM’s speech. One cannot help but be reminded of what Karl Marx
said years ago,
"Religion is the
sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of
soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".
When the long-awaited verdict on the
contentious issue of the disputed land in Ayodhya was finally delivered by the
Supreme Court on 9 November 2019, many felt it was flawed. The judgement came
after a 70-year old conflict filled with acrimony, divisiveness, hate and
violence between sections of the Hindus and Muslims of the country. At the core
of the issue was the Ram Mandir – Babri Masjid dispute: was there a temple on
the place where the Masjid was built? To whom should the land be given to?
For the five-member Constitution bench
headed by the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S. A.
Bobde, D.Y.Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer delivering the
verdict was not an easy task - given the fact that the dispute was one of the
longest in the country’s history and secondly, it has always been a very
emotional issue between the country’s majority community: the Hindus and the
largest minority community: the Muslims. The verdict was a unanimous one,
relying on the findings of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
Some of the key points of the
1054pages landmark judgement include that:
·
the entire disputed land of 2.77 acres in Ayodhya must be
handed over for the construction of a Ram Mandir
·
the Central Government has been directed to formulate a
scheme in this regard within three months. A Board of Trustees must be set up
for construction of temple
·
the findings of ASI report cannot be brushed aside as
conjecture
·
ASI reports indicate that the Babri Masjid was not built
on a vacant land. The underlying structure was not of Islamic origin. The faith
of Hindus that the place is birth place of Lord Ram is undisputed.
·
an alternate suitable plot land of 5 acres in the town
must be allotted to the Sunni Waqf Board for construction of a mosque
·
the destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992 was a blatant
violation of law
·
the rights of Ram
Lalla to the disputed property is subject to maintenance of law and order and
communal harmony
·
the suit by Nirmohi Akhara was time barred
·
the Ram Janmabhoomi has no juristic personality. But Ram
Lalla, the deity has juristic personality
·
the Suit by Sunni Waqf Board is maintainable and not
barred by limitation
·
the Sunni Waqf Board has not been able to prove adverse
possession. There is evidence to show that the Hindus had been visiting the
premises prior to 1857
·
there is evidence to show that Hindus worshiped in the
outer courtyard of the disputed site. As regards the inner court yard, there is
no evidence in the suit by Sunni Board to show exclusive possession prior to
1857
There
has been sufficient deliberation and
debate in the country, on this particular judgement; most legal luminaires and
other intellectual can effortlessly point out to its many flaws and how it does
not address certain vexatious issues. The judgement ironically still remains unsigned; the then Chief Justice who
presided over this bench has been suitably rewarded, by this current
dispensation.
The
Government and the Sangh Parivar were surely in a tremendous haste. So on 5
August 2020 the
‘bhoomi
pujan’
of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya finally took place. It marked the beginning of the
construction work for a Ram temple, at the site where the Babri Masjid once
stood. The construction of the temple is expected to take three years and the
costs, yet undisclosed, will surely run into astronomical amounts. The Babri
Masjid - Ram Mandir fight, has been one of the most contentious issues in
post-independent India. It has resulted in plenty of bloodshed, destruction,
violence, hate and divisiveness.
Prime Minister Modi did participate in the ‘bhoomi
pujan.’ He went there not as a private citizen but as a Constitutional
authority, who is expected to protect and promote the secular fabric of the
country. Despite pleas from several sections of society that he should not
participate in the event, he threw all caution and propriety to the wind, in
order to display his true colours (he stopped hiding them a long time ago). The
majority of Indians are Hindus; but thanks to the vision and ideals of our
Constituent Assembly secularism was allowed to flourish with (at least
theoretically) all religions treated with respect and allowed to grow. In a
last ditch effort more than three hundred leading citizens of the country urged
the Prime Minister not to participate in the bhoomi pujan saying, “
The
Constitution of India makes it clear that the government and Prime Minister
should remain neutral to, and above all religions, thus upholding the values of
secular India. The Prime Minister going to Ayodhya to lay the foundation
of the temple undermines our secular framework, and clearly endorses the
majoritarian Hindutva agenda, despite his claims of building an inclusive
India. It implies the negation of the Constitutional values. Mr. Modi is not
just an individual citizen. As the Prime Minister and head of the government
today, he should take special care to make sure that he is not seen as partisan
towards with one faith or religion. This is especially as,
notwithstanding the court verdict, Ayodhya continues to be a disputed issue”.
Besides this, there have been several others who
have protested the Prime Minister’s presence at the ‘bhoomi pujan’.Of course,
the Prime Minster cared two hoots about what they or for that matter anybody
else said!
In the pathbreaking
judgment of 1994 of ‘
S.R. Bommai vs Union of India
’
, secularism was recognised as part of the basic structure of the
constitution; Justice Jeevan Reddy
held that the constitution does
not recognise or permit mixing religion and state power, and the two must be
kept apart. The judgement states, “
if the
Constitution requires the State to be secular in thought and action, the same
requirement attaches to political parties as well. The Constitution does not
recognise, it does not permit, mixing religion and State power. Both must be
kept apart. That is the constitutional injunction. None can say otherwise so
long as this Constitution governs this country.
Introducing
religion into politics is to introduce an impermissible element into body
politic and an imbalance in our constitutional system. If a political party espousing
a particular religion comes to power, that religion tends to become, in
practice, the official religion. All other religions come to acquire a
secondary status, at any rate, a less favourable position. This would be
plainly antithetical to Articles 14 to 16, 25 and the entire constitutional
scheme adumbrated hereinabove. Under our Constitution, no party or
Organisation can simultaneously be a political and a religious party.”
India
is a secular democratic country in which there is a clear division between the
State and Religion. Our Founding fathers and the Constituent Assembly ensured
that. Now that the Prime Minister has participated in the bhoomi pujan means
that he has not only desecrated what is sacred and secular in the country but
he has destroyed it.
In
a rather strange coincidence, exactly 120 years ago (on 5 August), Rabindranath
Tagore, our visionary Nobel laureate wrote a poem "Deeno Daan". It
was also about a temple. It has been going viral these past few days;
(Here is a loose translation of some of the excerpts)
“There is no god in that temple”,
said the Saint.
The King was enraged;
“No God? Oh Saint, aren’t you
speaking like an atheist?
On the throne studded with priceless
gems, beams the golden idol,
And yet, you proclaim that’s empty?”
“It’s not empty; it’s rather full of
the Royal pride.
You have bestowed yourself, oh King,
not the God of this world”,
Remarked the saint.
The King frowned, “2 million golden
coins
Were showered on that grand
structure that kisses the sky,
I offered it to the Gods after
performing all the necessary rituals,
And you dare claim that in such a
grand temple,
There is no presence of God”?
The Saint calmly replied, “in the
very year in which, twenty millions of your subjects were struck by a terrible
drought;
The pauperized masses without any
food or shelter,
Came begging at your door crying for
help, only to be turned away,
They were forced to take refuge in
forests, caves, camping under roadside foliage, derelict old temples;
And in that very year
When you spent 2 million gold to
build that grand temple for your God,
That was the day when God
pronounced:
“My eternal home is lit by
everlasting lamps,
In the midst of an azure sky,
In my home the foundations are built
with the values:
Of Truth, Peace, Compassion and
Love.
The poverty stricken puny miser,
Who could not provide shelter to his
own homeless subjects,
Does he really fancy of giving me a
home?”
That is the day God left that Temple
of yours.
And joined the poor beside the
roads, under the trees.
Like emptiness of the froth in the
vast seas,
Your mundane temple is as hollow.
It’s just a bubble of wealth and
pride.’
The enraged King howled,
“Oh you sham cretin of a person,
Leave my kingdom this instant’.
The Saint replied calmly,
“The very place where you have
exiled the Divine,
Kindly banish the devout too".
Prophetic words indeed! The Prime
Minister would do the nation a great service by reading it and realizing that
the great sages of old still speak to us and expect us to act wisely!
*(
Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights and peace
activist/writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com)
