Kindly recall that I had, in my last column, as a Ram-fearing man, expressed anguish at Modi’s call to us to celebrate Diwali on January 22, the day the idol of lord Ram is due to be installed and consecrated in the grand new temple at Ayodhya.
I had expressed distress that the executive head of a constitutional republic should usurp the authority that rightfully vests in the religious establishment, and presume to declare the arrival of Ram back from his 14-year long exile nine months before the event happened. I had speculated if any mahant (priest) would make bold to underscore the overreach.
I seem to have spoken in needless skepticism.
Lo and behold, a venerated shankaracharya, highest of the high in the sanatan hierarchy, have now made an outraged critique of Modi’s gumption to touch the new Ram idol on the appointed day instead of leaving the consecration to those in the religious enclave empowered by faith to do so.
The shankaracharya of Puri has expressed disgust at the prospect that while the non-authorised Modi will be touching the idol (making it sound like a desecration rather than consecration), the high-priest will be expected to look and cheer the event with chants of “Jai” etc.
Mimicking Modi, the high priest has mocked the gloating victory hand gestures that the prime minister is likely to make to his audience.
Invited to be at the ceremony with but one attendant, the infuriated shankaracharya has said that he would not attend even if a hundred of his followers were invited.
Also read: Modi Government’s Campaign Around Ram Mandir Negates Everything That India Stands For
Nothing that any opposition leader may have said with respect to the canny political use of Ram done by the ruling party will carry the devastating import that the denigration by the shankaracharya inevitably does.
That they should so openly comment on, and condemn the narcissistic use of Hindutva by Modi puts paid to all those aggressive perorations that spokespersons of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) habitually make on prime time television about their selfless devotion to the faith rather than state power.
Is it possible that any sort of bold response to the comeuppance delivered by the high priests will be forthcoming from the RSS or BJP? Or, is it conceivable that their anguished outcry on behalf of the sanctity of the sacred will oblige the Hindu Hriday Samrat, Modi, to change his mind and leave the job of consecrating the new Ram idol to the high priests?
Highly unlikely, given that the whole and sole purpose of the event is to give a leg-up to the political campaign of the ruling party with respect to the forthcoming elections to the Lok Sabha almost exclusively on the one-man plank of Modi.
Will the blast from the high priests make any dent in Modi’s ‘Trump-like’ base followers who are willing to sacrifice everything for the hegemony of the sanatan?
How will the political opposition, now gathered into the INDIA collective, carry the shankaracharya’s message forward as Hindus whose devotion to the religion must seem less crass than that of those who have appropriated Hinduism with blatant disregard to the sanctities of the faith?
Will the shankaracharyas be joined by other high priests in the coming days to make a more considerable demarcation between executive prerogatives and the purity of the sanatan dharma? Will the Tudor prevail over the Church, or vice versa, and to what consequences? We will soon find out.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
