Left out of Ayodhya

I just received a query from a friend on WhatsApp.

Have you received an invitation to visit the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha?

I responded with a lot of laughing emoticons.

Then I thought

Is it a matter for laughter?

I am a citizen of India whose Prime Minister is going to inaugurate the temple. As a citizen, I deserve an invitation. Otherwise, the inauguration (whatever name one may give to it in local languages) should be carried out by anyone other than a government official. What has the government got to do with a place of worship without involving the citizens?

I’m grateful to my friend for provoking me to write this.

I’m reminded of a parable I read in a cynical novel a few years ago.

Some crows were sitting on an electricity cable as they always do in India as if they were mocking our entire systems. Even our electric power can do them no harm, let alone the semiliterate politicians.

Then came a dove, pure white dove, from somewhere and sat a few feet away on the same electricity cable.

One crow said to the next one pointing out the white colour of the different one, “Saala, convert kar liya.” [The bastard has been converted.]

Anyone who doesn’t look like us is a traitor in India today.

Religious conversions are the worst crimes.

You can rape in India. You can plunder. Kill. You can do whatever you wish. As long as you belong to a particular religion, a particular political party. Wear a particular robe of a particular colour. Worship a particular god - not the heavenly one, you know.

Even if you do all that, you won’t get the invitation to the inauguration [Pran whatever] of the Mandir. Because the god there suffers from an acute sense of insecurity.

I have no problem about not being invited though I do feel let down as a citizen of India. But my friend who sent me the WhatsApp message seems to have a serious problem somewhere. He is a diehard fan of the god who suffers from the most terrible feelings of insecurity in the world of ordinary mortals.