The harsh reality is that over the last six years, the BJP, led by the Modi & Shah duo have done all that they can to polarize the nation along religious lines and to sow hatred among different communities, regions and sections of Indians. Ram did not figure in the Jan Sangh's agenda till the early eighties when the newly formed BJP managed to win just 2 seats in parliament. Ram became a resurrected vehicle that they desperately wanted to cling on to, to consolidate the Hindu vote bank, guided by the Sangh of course. They have managed to do that very handsomely indeed.
Given that reality, I felt that the statement by Priyanka Gandhi on behalf of the Congress was an astute one,pointing out the virtues of Ram and his uniting qualities. In fact, one of the founding fathers of the party, Gandhiji, died at the hands of a Sanghi assassin apparently with the name of Ram on his lips.
Here is an excerpt from a news report about this:
'Issuing a statement on behalf of the party, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said: “The bhoomi pujan ceremony for the construction of the Ram temple will take place on August 5, 2020. Hope this ceremony becomes a symbol of Ram’s message and consolidates national unity, fraternity and cultural harmony.”Priyanka went on to explain what Ram stands for, how his character embodies liberalism, righteousness and sacrifice, and how he belongs to one and all.
Without making an obvious attempt to juxtapose these values against the politics of domination and division that the RSS-BJP is accused of practising, the Congress leader pointed out that Lord Ram’s philosophy is antithetical to hate and exclusion.
Contending that the Ramayana has left a deep and indelible mark on the cultures of the Indian subcontinent and the world, Priyanka said: “Lord Ram, Mother Sita and the Ramayana have illuminated our religious and cultural memories for thousands of years. The Ramayana has influenced religion, policy-making, sense of duty, sacrifice, liberalism, love, valour and service in the Indian subcontinent. Ram’s legacy has helped integrate humanity in India.”'
it is of course a fact that democracy has been stripped away and the constitution has been trampled on with the active assistance of supposedly independent institutions like the judiciary. The media has been, by and large, cajoled, arm-twisted and morphed into becoming cheerleaders and an extended propaganda arm of the ruling party, particularly for the duo who hold sway above everything else viz., Modi and Amit Shah. In this regard the Congress was more vociferous about the abrogation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, the conversion of the state into two union territories by what was indeed a farcical method and the the oppression and the indignity heaped on Kashmir's denizens through the brutal crackdown which even modern-day dictators may hesitate to resort to. Their protests inside and outside parliament were brushed aside and were of no avail. More than anyone else, the Congress must be keenly aware of the fact that a Hindu rashtra is well on its way to fruition in India and that democracy has been all but buried. They would also be keenly aware of the fact that such a transition enjoys considerable popular support currently. Like almost everyone else, I don't think they have any answers to this present situation.
Moving on to an associated topic, in these days when the Indian media has become a cheerleader and the propaganda arm of the ruling party, it is rare to find passionate columnists who do not flinch while narrating the reality. Veteran Sankarshan Thakur is one such journalist and these excerpts from his column will tell you the harsh reality about Modi 2.0 which started from May 2019.
'The dismemberment and downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir, the cold stripping and silencing of what used to be India’s prided crown, were decisions of a popularly elected government, the most handsomely mandated executive in decades. No element of those decisions was democratic — not the way they were arrived at, not the way they were effected. That said, Kashmir’s was a popular humiliation, a rapturously popular one, whose din drowned protest to a feebleness and eventually drained it; it was the popularity the hunter enjoys in a hunt over the hunted. That was the ritual of the rite, the jungle ritual of might is right. Nobody can rightfully complain they did not see it coming, the jungle cannot complain about itself. An elected jungle is still a jungle, it is decreed to live by its ways. That decree was popularly handed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi & Co in May 2019. It was a decree vastly different from the decree of 2014. Understanding the difference is the key to understanding what Modi’s formulation of New India is. It is a majoritarian formulation, not a democratic one.
What democracy so utterly and absolutely deprives its citizenry? What democracy celebrates such violent dispossession of those it calls its own? What democracy stirs not a little finger to say, look, what’s happening is not right, you cannot do it to a people, not to those you call your own, not to those you sat and supped with till just the other day. What democracy rejoices in denying to others what it seeks to possess for itself? I shall go on pilgrimage to Amarnath but I shall piss on your walls on the way there. What democracy does that?
But that is what we have made of ourselves, that is what we voted for, that is what we invested in and installed in power — a majoritarianism. It’s misplaced to blame Narendra Modi & Co. They were clear and upfront with their agenda; it was all in their manifesto, the bold print, the fine print, what lay there to be read between the lines. This nation voted for what became the CAA, this nation voted for what is going to be the NRC, this nation voted, eyes wide open, for Narendra Modi, a man who likened a pogrom to the death of a pilla, or pup. It must live with the consequences and believe that at 50,000-plus infections a day, we are doing gloriously tackling the coronavirus and that there are no Chinese troops squatting on Indian soil. We should also believe that “goli maaro sa***n ko” is a patriotic cry and reading the Preamble to the Constitution anti-national. We should believe that habeas corpus is no plea to urgency over ensuring human rights, and that the lies of a salaried solicitor must always override the truth of what we can see, whether it is migrants walking thousands of harried miles home or an elderly gent protesting from behind a concertina mesh that he is chained when the world is being told he is free. We must believe the freedom of his chains because it is lies we chose.'
The full column, written well & passionately, can be read by taking a jump to the link below:
--Raja Mitra
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