After all that front page coverage’s and heated political debates on prime time television, 123 Nuclear Agreement has finally blurred into the background with the emergence of the “incredibly serious” Ram Sethu Controversy. How surprising that matter of national and economic importance can so easily be hijacked and taken over by matters of faith, religion, and minority-majority divide. I may be gravely mistaken to state that Ram Sethu is not a matter of national and economic importance, but that’s the way it is being projected. No one is interested in discussing the economic benefits that shipping industry would have or the eco logical and sea life damage the project is likely to cause.
But is this not expected in a country where the second largest political party is built and has succeeded merely on the ideology of Hindutva and support of fundamentalist organizations like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. One thing I would give to BJP is that alleast it is a party built on an ideology unlike Congress(I) which is built on and around a family. Although the usefulness of such an ideology is far beyond my comprehension or for that matter beyond the comprehension of any progressive Indian, whether Hindu or non Hindu. But the dilemma is that there are millions of takers for such an ideology, people who vote for and give this ideology its voice. No wonder then parties would be formed and would continue to supersede matters of majority-minority divide over matter of national and economic significance.
And the more I look into the chain of events that have followed the publicization of this issue the more comical it appears. The poor judiciary just upheld the line that “There aren’t sufficient historical evidences to verify the existence of Lord Ram”, which is in no way derogatory or disrespectful to Ram or his followers and just reiterates a fact we all have read in history books since childhood that Ramayana and Mahabharata are works of fiction and not historical accounts. To make the maters even more amusing the simple English translation of the phrase “Vanar-Sena” to “army of monkeys” has been found highly objectionable and had to be reworded. And to cap it all NDA and its support groups are up in arms asking the project to be stalled so that the structure built by Lord Ram can be preserved, whereas the project was originally sanctioned by the NDA government in 2002. Such events just boost my respect for the Left, right or wrong, they atleast oppose and debate matters of national and economic significance, ensuring that the truly deserving news gets importance over insignificant ones.
Alas the 123 controversy may have died of without any tangible effect but this one might take a few causalities, namely the already suspended ASI officials, maybe a “Soni” cabinet minister, and definitely a big chunk of Brahmin vote bank from the Congress. No wonder such comical events would be played out on the political stage as long as we continue to empower people propagating this non progressive narrow-minded ideology.
—–Before anyone concludes anything, the author himself is a North Indian Hindu by religion
