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COVER STORY DECEMBER 05, 2025 | The Indian Eye 5

nation—“not merely a person but a The BJP national spokesperson
value, a discipline, and a direction.” Shehzad Poonawalla framed Kabir’s
Ram, he said, was the confluence of remarks as “appeasement politics”
truth and valor, the embodiment of aimed at a vote bank, while Congress
dharma, a ruler who put the hap- leader Udit Raj tried to shift the ar-
piness of his people above his own, gument to religious freedom, saying
a symbol of patience, forgiveness, that if the foundation of a temple
knowledge and humility. If India could be laid, there should be no ob-
was to become a developed coun- jection to laying the foundation of a
try by 2047, he argued, then “Ram mosque.
must be awakened within each of Yet the political center of gravity
us.” had visibly shifted. Few mainstream
The Prime Minister stitched to- parties, even those critical of the BJP,
gether mythology, governance and were willing to directly attack the
development into a single narrative. flag-hoisting itself.
Ram Rajya, in his framing, was not The Road to 2047
a nostalgic fantasy. It was a work-
able model where good governance, s the flag over Ayodhya
justice, social equality and moral flapped against the November
discipline could underpin econom- Asky, Modi was already looking
ic growth. A developed India—or beyond the immediate spectacle. The
Viksit Bharat—would not be built Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Rashtriya Dharma Dhwaj, he said, would forev-
on GDP figures alone, but on a deep Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat during the Dhwajarohan Utsav at Shri Ram er proclaim that “truth is Dharma,”
cultural self-confidence that drew Janmabhoomi Mandir, in Ayodhya on Tuesday. (DD/ ANI Video Grab) that there should be “no discrimina-
power from its roots instead of bor- tion or pain,” and that a truly dharmic
rowing its legitimacy from foreign society would be one where “there is
models. norities and alleging that historic lecture others” and should “turn its no poverty, and no one is helpless.”
That argument led him directly mosques were under threat of dese- gaze inwards” instead of delivering The vision, at least in words, linked
to the question of “mental slavery.” cration and demolition. It urged New “hypocritical homilies.” cultural pride with social justice and
He went back to 1835, to Thomas Delhi to “uphold its responsibilities” spiritual symbolism with material
Macaulay and the colonial-era edu- towards Muslims and to protect their At home, the political debate change.
cation system that, he said, sowed the places of worship under international In his speech, he invoked the
seeds of uprooting India from its cul- human rights norms. around Ayodhya continued in image of Ram’s chariot in the war
tural foundations. The reaction in New Delhi was familiar, if sharper, tones. In against Ravan: its wheels as valor and
Ayodhya, for him, was now the swift and scathing. Ministry of Ex- patience, its flag as truth and good
antidote to that mindset. The Kov- ternal Affairs spokesperson Rand- West Bengal, TMC MLA Huma- conduct, its horses as strength, wis-
idar tree engraved on the Dharma hir Jaiswal dismissed the comments yun Kabir triggered controver- dom, discipline and benevolence, and
Dhwaj—a hybrid of Mandar and “with the contempt they deserve,” its reins as forgiveness, compassion
Parijat created by Rishi Kashyap— calling Pakistan a country with a sy by announcing that he would and equality. That chariot, he suggest-
became a metaphor. When a civ- “deeply stained record of bigotry, re- lay the foundation stone of a ed, was the metaphor for India’s jour-
ilization is cut off from its roots, its pression and systemic mistreatment ney to becoming a developed nation.
glory is buried in the pages of history; of its minorities.” A state, he said, “Babri Masjid” in Beldanga on The challenge was not just to build
when those roots are restored, iden- with such an “abysmal human rights December 6. highways and ports, but to ensure that
tity is reborn. The next ten years, he record” had “no moral standing to power did not turn arrogant, that suc-
urged, must be dedicated to freeing cess did not corrode humility, and that
India from the mentality of slavery, growth did not deepen divisions.
so that by 2035—two centuries after For Modi and the BJP, the mes-
Macaulay’s project—India would sage is clear: the road to 2047 runs not
stand culturally decolonized. only through industrial corridors and
To give that vision political and digital highways, but through tem-
social flesh, Modi pointed back to ple courtyards, Ramayana parks and
his government’s record. In the last spiritual congregations. The hoisting
11 years, he said, every marginal- of the Dharma Dhwaj in Ayodhya is
ized section—women, Dalits, back- a landmark in that project—a visual
ward classes, tribals, the deprived, anchor for a larger ideological shift in
farmers, workers, youth—had been which India is invited to see itself not
placed at the center of development. merely as a post-colonial state, but as
Critics & Counter-Narratives an ancient civilization resuming its in-
terrupted story.
he symbolism of the Dharma But for now, in the narrative be-
Dhwaj did not remain con- ing written from Ayodhya’s newly
Tfined to Ayodhya. It quickly paved streets and gleaming temple
travelled across borders and into do- stones, the saffron standard atop the
mestic political trenches. shikhar is being projected as a sym-
In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Min- bol of confidence, not confrontation;
istry of Foreign Affairs condemned Devotees in large numbers attend the Dhwajarohan Utsav at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi of wounds healed, not reopened; of a
the flag-hoisting, accusing India of Mandir, in Ayodhya on Tuesday. (DPR PMO/ANI Photo) civilizational memory returned to the
discriminatory practices against mi- center of national life.

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