R. K Sinha
One thing should be clearly understood that secularism does not means on any account that a country has to completely distance itself from religious traditions and cultural beliefs. It is almost impossible. Last week, prior to the laying of foundation stone for the new building of the Parliament, land worship and Sarva Dharma Prayer meetings were held. It was a normal traditional ritual which we follow for any ground-breaking ceremony before starting the construction work anywhere. But, this ceremony irked some pseudo-secularists and they started questioning the very occasion and said why do only land worship programme was held. Then what worship they needed. This was not described. They supplemented their point by saying that other religions were ignored. When they were presented with truth that land worship programme was organised with Sarva Dharma prayer meeting, they still continued their illogical argument. They are the same demented elements, who were also got troubled when France handed over first shipment of Rafael fighter jet planes to India. They were also annoyed by worship of Rafael even at that time.
One should consider the co-incidence between secularists and Minister of Pakistan, when our so-called intellectuals where facing the wrath of people after criticising the worship of Rafael, at the same time Pakistani Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Choudhary also made fun of worship of Rafael. France handed over first Rafael fighter jet to India during Dussehra. Going with the tradition Defence Minister Rajnath Singh worshipped Rafael.In India, there is an ancient and religious tradition to perform Shastra Puja during Dussehra. Rajnath, while speaking on Shastra Puja in France, said that we have full faith in supernatural powers. However, who consider the worshipping wrong should keep in mind that there are only two infinite things in the world-Universe and expansion. We should keep all the less important debates aside. If an Indian worship according to our tradition then what is the need of criticising his/her belief. Defence Minister only performed according to the Indian tradition. Mindless people are illogically questioning the need of land worshipping and Shastra Puja? Aren’t they aware that the original copy of constitution has included the images of Natraj, Shri Krishna giving teachings of Geeta to Arjuna and incarnation of Godess river Ganga on Earth from Heaven. Image of Gautam Buddha giving teachings of peace is also present in original copy of Constitution. An another important symbol of Hindu religion Shatdal Kamal is also present everywhere in the original copy of Constitution. Entire main page is created by carefully including Kamaldal. It is true that had the images of Shri Rama, Krishna and Natraj were included at present, it would have been opposed extremely considering it a communal step. Images of Mughal ruler Akbar and Tenth Guru of Sikhs Guru Govind Singh are also present in the original copy. Along with this, sultan of Mysore Tipu and heroine of 1857 battle Rani Laxmi bai is also present. Now it should be understood by everyone that our Constitution fully respects the prosperous culture and religious beliefs of people dwelling in India. It is also validated when land worship and Sarva dharma prayer meeting was held during the laying of foundation stone of new Parliament building.
Gandhi and Sarva Dharma prayer
meeting
If we talk about Sarva Dharma prayer meeting then the credit of organising it the very first time goes to father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. When he stayed in Valmiki Mandir and then Birla Mandir, Sarva Dharma prayer meeting started to organise on daily basis. However, Bahai, jewish and Persian religious prayers were not held at that time. In Delhi, after the land worship programme of new Parliament building Sarva dharma prayer meeting was held in which Buddhist, Jewish, Persian, Bahai, Sikhs, Christians, Jain, Muslims and Hindu prayers were performed. Buddhist prayers were held initially. There after teachings of Bible were delivered. During Sarva Dharma prayer meeting, the representatives of every religion are alloted five minutes each. The prayers of Bahai religion were delivered by Sushri Neelakshi Rajkhowa. Then Jewish religion prayers were performed. After Jewish prayers Jain religion prayers were performed, followed by teachings of Guru Granth Sahib and Aayats of Quraan. It is not necessary that the persons taking part in Sarva Dharma prayer meeting compulsorily belong to religious places of their religion. They could be intellectuals of their respective religion. Geeta teachings were delivered in the last. It is the secular character of India.
It is highly unfortunate that some people got annoyed by just even taking the names of Hindu God and Goddesses. The people who are opposing the land worship ceremony are the similar people who were unhappy after the Supreme Court’s verdict on Ram Mandir. Prabhakar Mishra on his important book ‘Ek Ruka Hua Faisla’ wrote about Supreme Court’s verdict that ‘Supreme Court in its verdict said that according to the report of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) there were evidences of temple under the structure which was demolished. The court said that the report of ASI cannot be rejected in this case.’ But one should think that even after the important decision of court, many of the secularists and extremely communal leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi continuously said that the decision of court was not right. Socialist thinker Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia ji said that ‘there are three biggest legendary names in India-Ram, Krishna and Shiv’. The works of them are almost known to everyone or at least one in every two. Their thinking and works, or whatever they have said are known in detail by one in every ten individuals. The people of India chant names of Ram innumerable times.
Now it is worrying that the place where Ram is in every small atom, innocent persons taking the names of Shri Ram were sent to jails by CM of West Bengal Mamta Banerjee. It was hardly even envisioned that taking the name of Shri Ram can land a person in jail or can be threatened so. This scenario has been created by Pseudo-secularists of India. They should be aware about the situation they could have to face if the wrath of general population exploded in its opposition.
(Writer is senior editor, columnist and Former MP)
