A deity of Shri Ram, Ram Lalla Virajman, resides in a makeshift temple in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram. In India, Ayodhya is revered as one of the seven most holy places and is located in Uttar Pradesh. The area, however, has been disputed land since 1528, when Emperor Babur demolished the ancient temple and built in its place, Babur’s mosque.
Recently, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), which claims to stand for the rights of Hindus, expressed concern for the deity in the temple due to the cold wave and signed an official petition stating that the deity must be supplied with sweaters and a room heater. Their main beliefs stem from the idea that India is predominately a Hindu nation. In a country like India, where the youth is ready to stand for their beliefs, VHP is able to influence the mind of such youth and readily participate in religious protests, spreading their own beliefs of a Hindu nation.
Justifying the ludicrous demand
Uttar Pradesh has experienced cold waves since 2008, where the coldest day was recorded to be in January 2013 where the temperature plummeted to -1 degrees Celsius. The VHP, in 2017, has asked for sweaters and heaters for the deity in Ayodhya due to a cold wave. The reason that this petition seems ingenuine is that UP has experienced several cold waves in the past yet no such petition had been filed before.
It is also intriguing that the priests in the temple themselves refuse to install heaters for the fear that it may be a fire hazard and question the VHP’s real intentions by making the statement, “Were they sleeping from last 25 years?”. In fact, one of the priests was said to have called VHP’s petition a “cheap publicity” stunt. It is clear that the VHP simply want to use religion for their own political agenda by using a controversial topic, to gain attention from the media. The use of a highly revered deity also helps them convince the minds of the youth with the idea that they are standing up for their religion.
The not-so-surprising absurd demands
This is not the first time the VHP has made an absurd suggestion in the name of religious beliefs. In 2014, the leader of the party, Ashok Singhal, stated that Hindu families must “produce at least five children” due to the increase in the population of other religions namely: Muslims and Christians. Over-population is one of the biggest reasons for India’s downfall. More than twenty percent of India’s population is officially below the poverty line and people are forced to live on the streets. 37 percent of illiterate adults globally live in India. The idea that a leader living in a country with these real issues can promote an exponential increase in childbirth simply shows his negligence towards the people in the country and his blind devotion to a single cause. In a country where more than a hundred deaths were recorded in 2013 due to the cold waves, it is astonishing that the priority of Hindu leader is not the people and supplementing the distribution of sweaters out to the general public, but instead, is a deity that has survived in this weather for decades.
It is safe to say that the downfall of this country is the fact that most leaders stand for social causes only for their own political gain thus, fooling the population with such absurd petitions and helping them march towards their own doom.
