Hey Ram!

The Ayodhya verdict is creating more waves in the media than in the Indian political ocean. Political parties and religious groups are maintaining an uneasy silence a few days before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court delivers the judgment in the Ayodhya dispute on September 24. The parties are nervous on the outcome of one of post-colonial India’s most explosive issues. The Sangh Parivar and Muslim groups are edgy, but are not showing any signs of getting flustered over the verdict. Both sides have given generous bytes on the possibility of knocking the doors of the Supreme Court.
The Centre has urged the leaders and the people to exercise restraint. A lot of responsibility lies on Mayawati ‘s shoulders to keep the epicentre of the emotional quake intact. She had requisitioned for additional troops, but the Centre has parted with three-fourth of the number she asked for.
The bitter memories of December 6, 1992, and the aftermath of the darkest deed in post-Independent history have remained just that, a bitter memory. It is almost two decades now. The youth of today, those who were born after 1992, have not been through the trauma of the unending dark curfew nights and terror-stricken winter mornings. The enormous time the case has dragged in the courts has left us anesthetised. Saffron leaders, who remote-controlled people’s religious sentiments for their political gains, seem to have themselves pressed the mute button. L.K. Advani, who took out the rath yatra, as purely an election strategy to whip emotions in 1990, appears weary. Sadhvi Rithambara with her hollering of “ek dhakka aur” that energised the kar sevaks to bring down the Babri Masjid to dust, is nowhere in any frame. Uma Bharti, the other key saffron anti-Babri player, is languishing in Madhya Pradesh politicking.
Let us hope people do not take seriously the few stray bytes of the Parivar. RSS strongman Mohan Bhagwat has said his team will await the court verdict, but laced his controlled demeanour with the statement, “Of course, the aspirations of the Hindu society is that there should be a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi.” Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray has also meowed about the right to mandir in Ayodhya.
The court decision, whatever it may be, will be nothing more than an ego issue between the leaders of the two religious communities. It has ceased to be an election plank anyway. Those born post-1992, the post-liberalisation youth, who will never feel the hurt of the 1992-93 communal bruises, have other issues to grapple with. Environment, health, education, employment and inflation are more pressing than Ram.
Even if an elaborate Ram temple does come up, how many will be willing to take Ram’s blessings in that premises, having stepped on the rubble of an erstwhile mosque and trampled over countless victims of communal hate? Do we need a temple at that cost?
Ram might prefer to be in our hearts, and not in a temple, built on death and destruction.