Finally, the most awaited day for Hindus has arrived; Wait of over 500 years is over as Ramlalla returns to his birthplace

August 5! A divine day when the construction of Ram Mandir will start with the laying of the foundation for Ram Mandir structure after bhumi pujan. Twisting the knife for Left-liberal intelligentsia, it’s the same date when Article 370 was abrogated last year. It seems like August 5 has been deliberately chosen to slap the liberals in their face.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to visit the holy city of Ayodhya to witness the auspicious event of bhumi pujan along with the architecture-in-chief of the whole Ram Mandir issue, Lal Krishna Advani. This is much more than just laying the foundation stone of the Ayodhya Temple –the bhumi pujan event for Ram Mandir is all set to transcend the belief, culture and ethos of Hindus.

As per reports, Prime Minister Modi will place a silver brick weighing 22.6 kg at the foundation site of the majestic Ram Mandir during the groundbreaking ceremony in Ayodhya. Five silver rocks denoting 5 Nakshatras will also be placed. The Prime Minister will be worshipping 5 silver rocks in the form of Nanda, Jaya, Bhadra, Rikta and Poorna and install them in the foundation of the temple.

Millions of Hindu devotees will be watching the historic and auspicious event on TV. Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, the trust established for the construction of the temple, has appealed to the general public to welcome the grand occasion by lighting diyas in their homes in the evening.

On this divine occasion, let us have a peek into the past.

The legal battle over possession of 2.77 acres of disputed land ended on November 9 last year when the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the belief of Hindus that Lord Sri Ram was born at the place where the central dome of the mosque was built. Babri Mosque that is named after Mughal emperor Babur was built after demolishing the Ram Temple that marked his birthplace. Not just Ram Mandir, Islamic invaders destroyed thousands of temples in India because as per their dogma ‘worshipping idols is kufr (unIslamic) and has to be eradicated’. But the Muslim side keeps condenting that the mosque was built in 1528 by Mir Baqi, a commander of Babur’s army without destroying any place of worship.

But Hindu devotees fought tooth and nails for their right to worship at the birthplace of Prabhu Ram. On January 29, 1885; Mahant Raghubar Das filed a suit in Faizabad (Ayodhya) court as “mahant of the janmasthan” for permission to build a temple on a chabutra outside the mosque. The sub judge and the district judge dismissed the case and Muslims kept holding the Ram Janmabhoomi for many decades after decades.

On the night of 22-23 December 1949, a huge crowd of Hindu devotees entered the mosque and planted idols of Shri Ram, Sita and Lakshman under the central dome. On December 23, Ayodhya woke up to the news that Ram Lalla was in the Babri Masjid, devotees thronged the mosque in large numbers and took control of it.

The planting of Shri ram idols is the most important event in my opinion. This event was perceived as the miraculous appearance of idols of Shri Ram in the temple. But it paved the way for Hindu devotees at the birthplace of Ram Lalla.

Thereafter Hindu devotees kept filing suits asserting their right to worship at the birthplace of Shri Ram. The prominent ones were filed by Gopal Singh Visharad and Ramakrishna Paramhans in 1950. The court passed an interim order in their favour against the removal of Ram idols. Then In 1959, Nirmohi Akhara filed a suit, asking for the premises to be handed over to itself and its mahants. Hindus kept fighting and appealing to the Muslim side but in vain. The liberal intelligentsia failed to convince Indian Muslims to be more Hindu friendly in Bharat. So in December 1961, Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Waqf Board filed a suit, asserting that the mosque was a public Waqf for over 400 years and sought that the premises be handed over to it. What about Hindu sentiments? Their rights and faith in Lord Shri Ram?

Isn’t it shameful that the liberal discourse–a section of opinion-makers, with a perpetually dissatisfied “liberal and secular” conscience, expects the victims to forget and forgive oppressors and move on?

Coming back to the history, ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’ movement was given a big push by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The movement gathered momentum in the late 1980s. An equally important event took place in 1986 that people hardly remember. On January 25 1986, a 28-year-old local lawyer Umesh Chandra Pandey appealed to a court to remove the restrictions on Hindu worship in the Babri Masjid premises. Subsequently, Local court ordered the Rajiv Gandhi Government to open the site for Hindu worshippers. This was when the gates were opened for Hindu devotees after 37 years.

Then comes the historic day of Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, 1992. It all started in 1990-91 when LK Advani began his ‘rath yatra for a Ram Mandir, and Karsevaks arrived in Ayodhya. On December 6, 1992, the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structure was demolished by Karsevaks.

In September 2010, the Allahabad HC in a 2:1 majority ruled three-way division of disputed area between Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. All the three plaintiffs approached SC and got it stayed. Thereafter in Sep-Oct 2019, the SC heard the appeals for 40 days and gave its historic verdict of correcting a civilisational wrong on November 9, 2019, in favour of Ram temple. What’s a thing to be noted is that it was a unanimous decision by a bench of 5 judges.

Hindus kept patience for more than 500 years for their right to worship Ramlalla at his birthplace. No other community in any other country can tolerate such obvious aggression. We are probably the most culturally diverse country in the world, precisely because we are a Hindu majority state, sustained by the Hindu ethos. Reconstruction of Ram Mandir will be the biggest cultural victory for Hindus. This is the only site that Hindus never gave up on. Islamic invaders destroyed thousands of temples over centuries, but the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya is the only site that Hindus have been fighting for relentlessly.

Laying the foundation of the grand Ram Mandir in the holy city of Ayodhya will mark the healing of a decades-old civilisational wound. There’s no denying the fact that our history has been tainted with bloodshed caused by invaders. Attacks on glorious Hindu temples, deliberate vandalisation of idols were characteristics of such assaults. Mosques on Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, Kashi Vishwanath in Benaras and Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura are nothing but an attempt to crush the self-esteem of Hindus and the Hindu civilisation itself. Jagannath Temple in Puri and Somnath Temple in Gujarat have faced such massive repeated destruction, that it has given birth to a fear which has led to restrictions on the entry of non-Hindus. Therefore not just the majority Hindus, but Reconstruction of Ram Mandir is very important for nurturing the idea of India.

The auspicious event of bhumi pujan of Shri Ram provides solace to the Hindu civilisation from wounds inflicted by religious fanatics and liberal intelligentsia that tried their best to prove that injustice with Hindus never happened. Hopefully, it will set a new precedent where there will be a collective responsibility for correcting the past wrongs.

Thus Ram Mandir definitely heralds a new era for Bharat. So dear fellow citizens, let us lit up our houses as well as our faces with a divine glee. Jai Siya Ram.