With just hours to go for the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on Monday, January 22, several celebrities from the Malayalam film industry have taken to sharing images of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution on their social media handles. The move is a reminder — on the day the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seen to have fulfilled one of its most strident Hindutva promises — of the secular, socialist, and democratic values enshrined in the Constitution.
Several well-known Malayalam film personalities including actors Parvathy Thiruvothu, Rima Kallingal, Divya Prabha, Kani Kusruti, directors Jeo Baby, Aashiq Abu, Kamal KM, and singer Sooraj Santhosh shared photos of the Constitution’s Preamble that says:
“We the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India a into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic and to secure to all its citizens:
Justice, social, economic and political;
Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
Equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all;
Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
in our Constituent Assembly, this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949 do Hereby Adopt, Enact and give to ourselves this Constitution.”
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The consecration of the Ram temple or the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ is scheduled to begin at 12.20 pm on January 22 and is expected to end by 1 pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a gathering of more than 8,000 people, including seers and prominent personalities, at the venue. Over 13,000 security personnel have reportedly been deployed. Bollywood stars including Vicky Kaushal, Madhuri Dixit, Alia Bhatt, Rajkumar Hirani, Mahaveer Jain, and Rohit Shetty are also among those attending the Ram Temple’s inauguration.
The inauguration today is seen as the culmination of the BJP and Sangh Parivar’s Ram Janmabhoomi campaign, which saw the demolition of the 16th century mosque Babri Masjid — built in 1528 by Mir Baqi, commander of Mughal emperor Babur — by kar sevaks belonging to Hindu majoritarian outfits on December 6, 1992. The demolition, which happened as a result of a concerted Hindutva movement, resulted in communal riots over months, which led to over 2,000 deaths. The Babri Masjid has been a contested site since 1885 as religious leaders and Hindutva outfits considered it Ram Janmabhoomi or the birthplace of Lord Ram.
A legal fight ensued in 1950 when Gopal Visharad Sharma approached the Faizabad district court for the right to worship idols of Ram Lalla, which were placed there in 1949. On September 30, 2010, the High Court, in a 2:1 majority, ruled a three-way division of the disputed area between the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara, and Ram Lalla.
Nine years later, the Supreme Court granted the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land to deity Ram Lalla and directed the Uttar Pradesh government to allot five acres of land to Muslims for building a mosque. Though the Supreme Court referred to the mosque’s demolition as “an egregious violation of the rule of law”, the verdict was criticised for accepting the logic of “faith over fact” and granting legal possession of land to those responsible for the demolition.
This article was originally published on The News Minute.
