THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Governor Arif Mohammed Khan was among the thousands who attended special pujas and Ramayana recitals at temples across Kerala on Monday to mark the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, even as leading political fronts voiced concern over “mixing of religion and state”.
Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the consecration, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticised the Union government for making the ceremony a state event.
Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan criticised the Sangh parivar’s attempts to mix faith and politics for electoral gains. However, his party colleague and senior MP Shashi Tharoor posted an image of the Ram Lalla on X with a caption, ‘Victory to Lord Ram, the husband of Sita’.
The governor offered prayers at the Rama Devi Mandir in Thiruvananthapuram as the consecration was progressing in Ayodhya. He was accompanied by former Meghalaya Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan.
Calling for the championing of the constitutional responsibilities, Pinarayi reminded Modi, albeit without naming him, that his participation in religious events would cast aspersions on the country’s credentials as a secular state.
Asserting that secularism is the soul of the democratic republic of India, the chief minister, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, said Indian secularism means the separation of religion and state.
We can’t be promoting one religion above others, says CM Pinarayi
Pinarayi rued that the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be getting thinner by the day. Religion is a private affair and the Constitution minces no words in stating that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience, and have the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion, he said.
“It has been part of our identity as a nation, right from the days of our freedom struggle. Those belonging to different faiths and those who were not part of any religion had taken active part in our fight for nationhood. This country belongs to all people and all sections of Indian society, in equal measure. As those who have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, we ought to ensure that every person within our territories enjoys this right in equal measure. At the same time, we cannot be promoting one religion above others, or demean others,” Pinarayi said.
In a major departure from when the constitutional office-bearers were cautioned against taking part in religious events, “now, we have come to a point when the inauguration of a religious place of worship in the country is being celebrated as a state event. Most of us have been invited to participate in the rituals by the trust in charge of it. As those who have pledged to preserve and protect our Constitution, let us reaffirm our commitment to its secular character, by declining to participate, thereby upholding our constitutional responsibilities,” he said. Pinarayi urged everyone to take this occasion as an opportunity to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood among the people transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities. “May India prosper further by developing a scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform,” he said.
Satheesan said, “How much ever they try, Ram would not be with those who shot dead the bravest freedom fighter the world has ever seen. If god is truth and justice, Ram has been standing on the corridors of Birla Mandir over the last 75 years with blood and fire in his eyes. Mixing faith and politics for electoral gains, amounts to questioning the very spirit of the Constitution and democracy.”