Whenever general or assembly elections are just round the corner politicians rake up unfulfilled issues for luring voters. Once again BJP has revived the Ram Temple issue ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. What will this museum have? Will it have anything new and will the contents be of any significance or importance to the people?
Though being a staunch Hindu, I feel that in our own “Hindustan” ( though India is “secular” by constitution, it’s has largest population of Hindus in the world. Hindus are victimized and are being given step-motherly treatment in every sphere and politicians take advantage of any given opportunity to appease the minority community for obvious reasons. Of late there have been many unpleasant events which have led to friction among several communities in India. Sadly, the “opportunistic politicians” have only added to the magnitude of these events by making unwarranted visits and inflammatory statements. I feel that this is not the right time to take up the issue of “Ram Temple” (or for that matter the Ram Museum ) in Ayodhya. I would still believe in maintaining peace and live in harmony to save the country on the whole, especially when there is mounting tension across the border.
In fact, of late few celebrities belonging to the minority community have been endorsing the fact that they enjoy better living conditions and more freedom in our country as compared to Islamic nations. It would be, of course, better for them to understand the facts and the gravity of the situation and extend a helping hand in arriving at an amicable solution to the Ayodhya crisis. Have they not seen in several places in India, many mosques and temples existing side by side peacefully? We have seen and heard of many cases, where people of both the communities have had a “give and take policy” and helping each other — especially during the festival season and at the time of severe calamities like floods, earthquake too.
Of course, it is a fact again that the original Ram temple was demolished and the Babri Masjid was built over it during the Moghul invasion when several temples elsewhere in the country too were destroyed. But, is it necessary that history should be repeated? We just can’t afford to have violence and bloodshed year after year. After all what are we going to achieve by building a temple or a mosque after several lives have been lost in the process ?
By raking up such issues from time to time, we are only preventing the government and the administration from doing their constructive work and also giving opportunities to several political parties and leaders to take advantage of the situation for their personal benefits. No one is sincere and honest in co-operating with the central government or coming out with concrete solution which will settle the issue permanently.
The need of the day is to maintain harmony and unity as we are facing the threat of terrorists’ attacks and ceasefire violations, repeatedly from across the border and in the consequence, lives of many soldiers are being lost. We need to extend our hand and support to the army and the government in maintaining unity, peace and order in the whole nation.
Meanwhile, how about taking up the worthy construction of a “super speciality hospital” with all modern amenities and hi-tech equipments, instead of a temple or mosque ? This will certainly prove to be a blessing for the poor.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
