India celebrated 75th Republic Day on 26 January 2024 to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India, which came into effect on the same date seventy-five years ago. The national jubilations were preceded by the consecration of the Ram Mandir on 22 January 2024 in Ayodhya. The religious ceremony was dubbed as “a political gimmick” by Apoorvanand Jha, a well-known Delhi professor, columnist and political commentator. In his opinion, “it was more about prime minister Narendra Modi’s self-projection than Ram Mandir’s consecration.” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, another Delhi based journalist, and author of upcoming book The Demolition, the Verdict and the Temple, opined that “we are seeing the emergence of political Hinduism, with Mr Modi being the chief priest.” He further said that “all lines between religion and politics got blurred.”

The land where the Ram Mandir has been constructed, after getting a clean chit from the Supreme Court of India on 9 November 2019, previously housed a sixteenth-century mosque called Babri Masjid. The mosque was demolished on 6 December 1992 by Hindu mobs on the instigation of right-wing Hindu ultranationalist organizations. The event triggered a wave of violence in several cities of India. As a result, the ensuing Bombay Riots resulted in the killing of more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, and evoked fear, dread, and scepticism among religious minorities of India.

For right-wing Hindu........

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