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SC Ram Mandir verdict never meant for ‘apotheosis’ of Modi: BBC Interview

In reply to a question whether the Ram Mandir inaugural event was linked with the 2024 General Elections, Dr Mukulika said it goes beyond just winning the elections. Read More

Thursday January 25, 2024 4:43 PM , ummid.com News Network

London: In a sharpest criticism of the manner in which the inaugural ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya was held, Dr Mukulika Banerjee said the Supreme Court of India verdict on Babri Masjid title suit was never meant for ‘apotheosis’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The Supreme Court of India had said that a trust will be set up to build the temple. But it wasn’t meant to serve as the backdrop of apotheosis of Narendra Modi as it has done today. That’s not quite what the SC ruling was for”, Dr Mukulika Banerjee, who is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, said in an interview with the BBC.

Apotheosis is the term used for the elevation of someone to a divine status.

In reply to a question whether the Ram Mandir inaugural event was linked with the 2024 General Elections, Dr Mukulika said it goes beyond just winning the elections.

“PM Modi is always in election mode. Because his agenda is not just to win the next elections and form the government but this is a much larger project of converting secular, diverse, democratic and republic country into a Hindu majoritarian state”, she said.

Talking to the British broadcaster, Dr Mukulika said that the BJP wants to convert India a majoritarian state despite the fact that the country has a vast majority of Muslims, Christians and indigenous as its citizens.

“This is the stated objective of the BJP and this is a constitutional re-envisioning of India and making it into a Hindu majoritarian state despite the fact that it is one of the most diverse country, having third largest population of Muslims, 100 million indigenous people and 26 million Christians”, Dr Mukulika Banerjee said.

Dr Mukulika Banerjee said that majoritarianism and democracy are two different things. Majoritarianism is where the minorities are targeted whereas a democracy is assessed by how well it treats its minorities, she said.

“So this kind of Hindutva ideology in which the supremacy of one particular religion – a religion that has been reduced to the worship of one particular god in one particular way, has become religion of India according to the BJP”, she said.

Interestingly, the Supreme Court of India in its verdict in Nov 2019 categorically ruled out that Babri Masjid was built after demolishing a temple.

The Supreme Court in its verdict also said that the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 06, 1992 by the Hindutva extremists in the presence of top BJP, RSS, VHP and other right-wing organisations was “illegal and a grave violation of the rule of the law”.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet in a resolution passed on Wednesday January 24, 2024 took the “apotheosis” of Modi to a new level by saying that the Prime Minister not only did the “Pran Prathistha” of Ram Mandir on January 22, 2024 but of India which was without soul despite becoming independent in 1947.

“This opportunity has come after centuries. We can say that the body of this country became independent in 1947 and now the soul has been established in it. This has given everyone a feeling of spiritual joy”, the cabinet resolution hailing PM Modi said.

The Union Cabinet in its resolution also called PM Modi a ‘Jan Nayak’ and congratulated him for what it claimed “heralding a new era” by boosting the “nation’s morale and its cultural self-confidence”.

 

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