Congress party’s ‘Contribution’ to build Ram Temple in Ayodhya
Those who expect political class to be a ‘revolutionary’ and ‘radically’ ‘secular‘ live in great illusion and should form their ‘own’ outfits which their own families will not support. Intellectualism and politics, frankly do not go together. Politics is sentiments, emotions and all the Saas-Bahu masala that we love to watch on TV screens. The reason why I am writing this is the ‘disappointment’ of many ‘secular’ friends with Congress party for ‘welcoming’ the Ram Mandir. Congress’s track record for the Mandir movement is well known and need a fair analysis. Except for the Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, the top leadership of the Congress even in those days believed that we should respect the ‘sentiments’ of Hindus. Who can ignore the fact that Dr Rajendra Prasad went to inaugurate Somnath temple reconstruction despite prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru’s disapproval? His own Minister K M Munshi was dead against Nehru’s attitude. After his death, Shastri did not have that much of conviction to handle the Sangh Parivar. Maybe, his term was too short to be evaluated that way but we have not found things where he was ideologically opposed to Hindutva. Mrs Indira Gandhi, in her initial years as prime minister, was tilted towards the left and it got reflected in her ending of privy purses and opting for land reforms and pro-farmer agenda. But emergency atrocities on Muslims particularly the whole politics of Sanjay Gandhi found favour from RSS and many of them actually sought reconciliation with her. There were many ‘Gurus’ including Acharya Vinoba Bhave, ready to play the role of a mediator. After her powerful return in 1980, Mrs Gandhi policies were more visibly right wing as she talked about the issue of Hindus in Jammu and then allowed the Punjab situation to go out of hand. A Bhindarwallah was ‘created’ to counter the Akalis but became a burden for her own party. To keep the Hindus happy, she ordered army operation to ‘flush out’ terrorists from the holy shrine of Harmandir Saheb. Mrs Indira Gandhi was assassinated at her official residence in Delhi on October 31st,…