#Ayodhya A Grand Hindu Awakening: New Hindu Response and Opportunity (Part III)

This is taking the form of Rahul Gandhi claiming to be a Brahmin Shiva Bhakt and Congress Party in Madhya Pradesh proposing creating a circuit for Sri Ram’s journey through Madhya Pradesh. It is difficult to see how such parties that now also want to appeal to Hindus can oppose a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, even if they have yet to endorse it fully. Nor can they ask for a further delay for the courts to decide the issue.

Read Part I: A Grand Hindu Awakening: The History

 Read Part II: A Grand Hindu Awakening: The Ram Temple-Mosque Counterpoint 

Some Congress leaders in Kerala, including Shashi Tharoor, are now questioning the court’s interference with the Sabarimala temple saying it is a matter of faith and tradition that the courts cannot ignore. If they can support Sabarimala, they cannot deny Ram Janmabhoomi. One must also remember that Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 first support the Ram Mandir movement and was involved in the first brick laying ceremony but unfortunately changed his mind and turned against the restoration of the temple.

The Supreme Court has again postponed the Ram Temple issue well into 2019, with no guarantee it will be given priority even then. The courts have relinquished their right to decide the case by their inaction over the years that shows no end in sight.

Is there a route to decide the case other than the recalcitrant courts? Yes, there is an ordinance root, also constitutionally viable, that has been used in some issues like the Shah Bano case that Rajiv Gandhi was willing to do to allay Muslim sentiments. The great delay and continued unrest over the Ayodhya case require that an ordinance resolve that issue today.

The legal question has been whether to give the site back to the Muslims for a new Babri Masjid, to have the site divided up among participants as a land dispute, or give it entirely back to the Hindus. The first option is impossible, and no political group would make that decision as it would be political suicide and an irretrievable loss of any Hindu vote. The second option is not a true resolution but continues a state of conflict that rests upon equating Hindu and Muslim sentiments in Ayodhya when Ayodhya is not an important sacred site for the Muslims. The third option alone can resolve the issue. Certainly, another land away from Ram Janmabhoomi can be given to the Muslims if they feel they need another mosque in the area. There are numerous large and famous Mosques throughout the nearby region for Muslims to attend that are more historically honoured by them as the many mosques in Lucknow.

The BJP Central government of PM Narendra Modi along with the help of the BJP state government under Yoga Adityanath and a BJP supported President Ram Nath Kovind has the power and the legal option to get an ordinance through, should they deem it wise or necessary. That option did not exist in previous governments or even in the Modi government before the UP and presidential election victories. The Modi government can also claim that the courts have had ample time to deal with the case if that was their intention properly.

Whether Hindus will get another chance of this type is questionable, as politics in India is changeable and such control over all the necessary seats of power is difficult to achieve. That is why Hindus are so adamant that a new Ram Mandir comes up in Ayodhya now and no further waiting occurs.

Conclusion

For India to rise it must reclaim its civilisational history and global sphere of influence, of which Sri Ram is perhaps the ultimate personification and the Ramayana its most widely honoured story. A nation is known by its monuments. As Sri Ram is the ultimate icon of India’s dharmic civilisation a grand monument to him is required. India/Bharat is the land of Sri Ram and the Rishis, not the Nehru dynasty and the Marxists. It is time to manifest this reality again in Ayodhya.

(The writer is the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies and an expert on yogic and Vedic traditions)