Building a temple for Rama during COVID times

As humanity has been left almost helpless and fearful watching the grand march of an epidemic that history has ever recorded, one that has brought down the shutters on all public display of spirituality in the land of innumerable gods and goddesses, India is to witness the foundation stone laying of a grand temple for Rama in Ayodhya.  As they say, in matters of spirituality, nobody can beat India. No, not even a pandemic can slow down the march of Hindutva to build the epitome of all that the Bharatiya Janata Party represents. Would it have been asking too much to postpone the ceremony by a few more months? Well, it is here for all to see.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the declaration setting up a trust for the construction of Rama temple in February this year. The Prime Minister’s Office is yet to confirm if the Prime Minister would  be present for the foundation stone laying ceremony. The trust has planned to assemble 50 dignitaries to celebrate the foundation laying ceremony.

When adversity strikes people are usually thought to act more sensibly.  But then it can be expected from people who have at least a bit of sense as a basic trait and are known to act with a sense of  discernment. But then it would be expecting too much from a party that was established to build a ‘Ramrajya’ and had grown suckling on the blood of communalism for which it had prepared the ground and sown the seeds of division.

Isn’t it strange that the government is ready to pour down crores of rupees on Ram Temple when a vast majority of the people are left in dire straits as a result of COVID-19 and the lockdown in its wake? 
But then earlier the Gujarat Government spent Rs.3,000 crores to set up a statue for Sardar Patel. That can be termed as foolhardiness in a state where the majority of the population are living below the poverty line.  It is the same foolhardiness at work in establishing a Rama temple at the time when the nation, nay humanity, is faced with the worst in its recent history.

The Supreme Court order giving permission for the establishment of a Rama Temple negated history and did not abide well for a secular nation such as India. Some of the recent decisions emanating from the Supreme Court had thrown to the winds the values of a democratic and secular nation.  One can’t even imagine such decisions being pronounced by apex courts in the developed western world that holds up ideals of secularism and democratic principles as supreme.

The BJP government is trying to revive Treta Yuga on the banks of Sarayu river. The project includes even a five star hotel.