It is utterly disgraceful when Lord Ram name comes into a negative limelight as a prime story of mainstream media. The all hue and cry started with a petition by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) questioning about the existence of Ram, the most sacred Hindu god venerate by millions. With obvious reasons ASI petition created a nationwide furore, fuelled by all the newspapers and 24 hours news channels. For them it was a scoop, which they couldn’t afford to miss, albeit of its grave backlash.
In India whenever boiling controversy erupts, politics has to play a part. Ram setu controversy is also not an exception from the immediate history. The Hindu fanatics suddenly got a job to execute after a long pause. Eventually, Hindus were feeling insecure (that miracle also credited to our media). The ruling party with the fear of loosing votes fabricated some defensive moves. To gain the last ground, government to convince the DMK over realigning the sea link in a manner that doesn’t breach Adam’s Bridge or “Ram Setu”.
The most amusing part of blistering dissonance is most of the people prefer to remain ignorant about the project. ‘Underwater shipping canal project’, ‘ecological imbalance’ are not the vocabulary of ordinary Indians but ‘religion’, ‘faith’ and ‘blasphemy’ are. Everybody aware about the Ram setu but remain wish to be ignorant about questions like why ASI suddenly forced to do this type of juvenile act? Why there is no debate over the ecological imbalance, which will suppose to happen if once underwater shipping canal would be materialised? Only debate boiling up is over the existence of Ram, which is beyond debate. In a country where regions fanaticism could cost thousands of life without repentance, shouldn't government and media move cautious about the aftermath. Undoubtedly, the petition derogates the religion to an extent but to make it an issue, do only harm, if not act as a religious balm. At the time of “Ram crisis” few lines from the film ‘swadesh’ only comes into mind.
Ram hi to karuna mein hai
shaanti mein ram hai
Ram hi hai ekta main
pragati mein ram hai
Ram bas bhakton nahin shatru
ke beech chintan hai
dekh taj ke paap ravan
Ram tere man mein hai
Ram to ghar ghar mein har
Ram har aangan mein hai
mann se ravan jo nikale
ram uske mann mein hai
