Ayodhya welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, August 5, for the foundation stone laying ceremony of Ram Mandir.
After decades of dispute on the Ayodhya matter, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, in November 2019, gave the 2.77 acres of disputed land to a trust that would construct the temple. A grand celebration was organized as UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditya had promised that this momentous occasion has come after 500 years. The grand celebration exhibited that there is no pandemic for VIPs. And, they are back to normalcy.
While our economy is crumbling, people are dying due to hunger, dying by suicides due to joblessness, border-tension is not resolving, the ceremony reflects the priorities of our government and of course our Hindus first and Indian citizens later. The unlockdown 3.0 guidelines state that “social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious functions and other large congregations will not be permitted”.
Then, why did our PM violate the protocol of COVID-19 pandemic? There were at least 1461 accidents over the course of nationwide lockdown from March 25th to May 31st- in which at least 750 people were killed including 198 migrant workers. There were 1390 who got injured, according to data. When the lockdown was imposed, people were not allowed to move to their villages, their homes. Some news channels and media houses also reported the cases where people were beaten by the police for coming out of their homes to get essentials.
Lockdown was necessary at that time to tackle the unprecedented situation. The government imposed the lockdown to prepare itself and to increase the number of hospitals, beds, ventilators, PPE kits and other equipment. However, the cases started escalating at a very high rate after the unlockdown 1.0 was announced. Some ministers gave the bizarre methods of escaping Coronavirus.
Additionally, some ministers are still giving statements that India is in a stable condition because of timely lockdown compared to other developed countries despite being the second most populated country. The fact is that this is not the right time to compare countries in terms of cases. Lockdown was the need of the hour. It must not be ignored that hundreds of people lost their lives in unfortunate accidents during the lockdown.
Thousands and lakhs of people became jobless and homeless. Lakhs of children will never go back to school. Thousands of child marriages took place during the lockdown. Thousands of children will become child labourers post-pandemic.
It’s high time for the government to acknowledge that our country needs better hospitals, efficient doctors and nurses instead of mandirs. We need better health infrastructure instead of mandirs turning into tourist spots.
Talking about Ram Mandir, we must not forget that August 5 was also an important day for Kashmir -the first anniversary of the scrapping of Article 370. Even after one long year, Kashmir is still deprived of full-fledged internet services. Many politicians are still under detention or house arrest. Kashmir presently has access only to 2G internet services which create immense problems for people. Tourism has been shut for over a year now, earlier because of Aug 5 decisions and now because of the pandemic. The situation has not changed after one year as it was promised while scrapping Article 370.
Let’s come to Rajasthan Politics. Rajasthan Government is in crisis for nearly a month now because of the tussle between CM Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. The rift between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot is for the seat of ‘Chief-Minister’. There are major conflicts between members of the party. The blame-game is on and no political leader is sparing a chance to attack each other. Sachin Pilot was unhappy with the decision of top command choosing Ashok Gehlot over him after 2018 assembly elections.
The 42-year-old has worked hard for the party. It was natural for Pilot to feel dejected when Gehlot became the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Some people in the party are now calling Sachin Pilot over-ambitious. However, the ongoing conflict of the Rajasthan Government has clearly exposed their real face. It has shown the key agenda of our leaders. They want the seat, power and money. The government is fighting when the cases in Rajasthan have crossed the 50K mark.
They don’t care even a bit about the public. COVID-19 peak has just begun in India as per WHO. The job crisis is also at its peak. Some cases of police brutality are also being reported. Despite all this, our government is way more concerned about the construction of Ram Mandir. Had government shown this pace to chart out an effective plan of lockdown and economy, we could have saved thousands of lives, homes and jobs.
Or, I should say our government is doing its best for India because according to me, our country is divided into two- India and Bharat. I am a part of Bharat. Bharat is suffering badly. My family is suffering because of the complete lockdown going on in my town. And, my father is the sole bread-winner of my family. My parents are worried about expenses.
I am worried about my career because there will a massive unemployment post the pandemic. For middle-class-families like mine, tackling the COVID-19 pandemic is more important than Ram Mandir. Reviving India economy is more important than Ram Mandir. Yeah! When Bharat suffers, nobody cares! When India suffers, the government cares!