5

Jan

Bhagwan   Ram And Our Electoral Scenario.

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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 5 January 2024

Shivaji Sarkar

 The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are round the corner and BJP is projecting the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya to gather mass support. It is natural that the Opposition parties are unhappy over this. However, they do not know how to defuse the issue so that the BJP may not take electoral advantage of Ram Mandir. In this confusion many important issues are either not being understood or are ignored.

  It was the year 1997. The then parliamentary affairs minister CM Mohammed, a close aide of ex-prime minister HD Deve Gowda, in a chit chat quipped,: “We Muslims are responsible for the rise of the BJP by opposing the construction of Ram Mandir. Where else but India could the Ram temple be built?”

What he said was an apt comment on the Muslim mindset which has heavily impacted the political scenario in independent India.  Clinging to the old imperial mindset   Muslims leaders could not appreciate the religious sentiments of the majority Hindu community in a democratic society. And that is the reason we have problems at Hindu religious places like Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi .

The inability of Muslim leaders to change their mindset has led to a political scenario in which Bhagwan  Ram finds himself embroiled in a fresh battle  joined by all vested interests –political, social, cultural and financial. Of course the  big business is the biggest gainer in this battle as it manipulates and decides the course its political and religious representatives take.

In fact Bhagwan Ram has been a deciding factor in  every election since 1991. The Bhagwan Ram factor  overshadowed every other issue from corruption to , high taxation, galloping inflation, ED, CBI raids or allegations of  EVM manipulation. The Press failed to build a   dialogue on relevant socio-economic issues and followed suit. How could it challenge the power of Bhagwan Ram factor.

Many regional parties also play the Muslim  card and swing between  soft or hard Hindutva defined by taking the name of Bhagwan Ram to win election. However, Hindutva is not without its obsession with the Muslims. At times it goes to the extent of calling all sorts of names  against the community and  defining all those who refuse to subscribe to its Hate Muslim doctrine as anti-national , calling all others names. Even farmers or truckers agitation are seen to be a deed of these nonMuslim hating “secularists” and all sorts of  expletives are used against them. North India that specialized in feminine expletives has now modernized itself with “secularist” expletives.

Rationality and exclusivity of Indian politics has been replaced with rabid expression of hatred either way. Since the Hindutva brigade united by some supposed ideological thread or rabid hatred is more united and and “modern” in terms of its infotech power, they have a stronger echo system to corner all other sects or parties or persons who differ with them. Trolling the opponents is invective and virulent. Instilling a sense of insecurity is a victory sign to the extent of creating organized “narrative” being churned out differently. They well know that they are often narrating not the truth, but may be the Donald Trumpite  post-truth.

It is getting sharper with unprecedented expulsion of 146 Opposition leaders and getting passed crucial criminal law bills without a discussion in parliament or in the society. The bills adopted all the suggestions of the police and executive sacrificing the rights of the people even to have an open social discussion.

It is not sudden. The vital National Education Policy 2020 was also drafted, passed and implemented without an open social discussion. In the melee, it ignored the basic issue of the wellbeing of the children and youth as it imposed many systems that are uncalled for like he four-year degree course and imposition of three year nursery education and multi-year so called PhD research, that add little value.

The minority syndrome has clouded the decision. A phobia, deliberate or  random, decides the course. The enmity replaces the playful inclusive politics, where Nehru praised a young Atal Behari Vajpayee with “accha bole” after his sharp running down of his decision.

The opponents try but fail. Rising prices or unemployment are not issues. The CAA or NRC onslaught protests succumbed. The farmers rallies were suppressed with showering of invectives. The issues of inflation or unemployment get lost in the cry of  they being anti-nationals. They have severest dislikes for the regime and its leader, Narendra Modi, but are clueless. A stir or protest has no place. Even blatant safety flaws of Delhi Metro are ignored.

Yatras of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi evoked response but the Congress party could not effectively raise the massive administrative failures and mayhem against Christians in Manipur, shooting prices, heavy debts and question irrelevant infra investments, demolitions and road fad.

Though somebody may claim monopoly rights on Him but Bhagwan Ram does not belong to any particular party, group or community. He belongs to all. And none should take a position in which one is on the side opposed to Him. Bhagwan Ram is everywhere. A political party may lay claim to a temple of Bhagwan Ram. So what. He never stayed in one place – went to the Guru’s ashram for education, crossed rivers, travelled in wilderness and tamed seas to become what he is in the heart and mind of billions of his followers and admirers today. The day when in  our country the    minorities, Opposition parties, intellectuals, social activists and others understand this we will have a new narrative. All those who are pitted in the grim political battle against Modi-Shah’s BJP   need to understand this.

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