Sunday, 19 January 2025
Sunday, 19 January 2025
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the consecration of Lord Ram’s idol in Ayodhya as the “re-establishment of the cultural consciousness of India,” ahead of the first anniversary Ram Mandir consecration ceremony.
“This Dwadashi of Pran Pratishtha is the Dwadashi of the re-establishment of the cultural consciousness of India,” said Modi in his Mann ki Baat broadcast Sunday.
On January 22, 2024, an idol of the new Ram Lalla was consecrated at Ayodhya’ Ram Mandir, ending a decade long dispute.
“While walking on the path of development, we have to preserve our heritage and move forward while taking inspiration from that,” he said.
As India approaches the first anniversary of the event, political comments have also created controversies.
On January 13, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said Bharat – that is India – got “true independence” the day last year when the Ram temple was consecrated in Ayodhya, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was on Monday quoted as saying.
After India got political independence from the British on August 15, 1947, a written Constitution was made according to the path shown by that specific vision, which comes out of the “self” of the country, but the document was not run according to the spirit of the vision at that time, the Sangh chief declared.
Bhagwat, who is no stranger to controversial comments, invited serious criticism from opposition leaders.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi slammed Bhagwat’s remarks on January 15.
Gandhi labeled Bhagwat’s comments as an act of “treason” and asserted that they were an affront to every Indian.
“To say that India did not get independence in 1947 is an insult to every Indian,” Rahul said.
And Saturday Rahul repeated his views: “His (Bhagwat’s) remark about India’s true independence after the Ram temple consecration is against the Constitution,” he said.
As The Telegraph Online had reported earlier, the RSS’s relation with the Indian freedom movement defies straight descriptions. After the first Republic Day in 1950, the Sangh never hoisted the Tricolour at its Nagpur headquarters, sticking to its Bhagwa Dhwaj (saffron flag), inscribed with an “Om”, even on R-Day and I-Day. It changed the practice in 2002 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister.
In his radio broadcast, Modi also spoke of the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, and said the festival celebrates unity in diversity and displays no discrimination or casteism in its tradition going on for thousands of years.
“In the Kumbh, the rich and the poor come together as one. All of them take a dip in the Sangam, dine together in bhandaras and receive prasad. This is why the Kumbh is the Maha Kumbh of unity,” he said.
He described the Maha Kumbh as an extraordinary confluence of equality and harmony.
