The politics in Ayodhya
The Muslim trust coming up with a mosque in Ayodhya is not a step that would strengthen secular credentials. The best solution would have been for both the parties not to have come up with either a mosque or a temple though the Supreme Court has sanctioned them. The important step now is to prevent polarisation as it will lead to communal strife and a lack of democratisation and constitutional values which we are already seeing. As the four Shankaracharyas including the Puri Shankaracharya have pointed out, mixing politics and religion is not desirable.
The challenges for the future are far more greater than the building of the mosque and the temple. Constitutional promises have to be kept.
If things continue to go the way they are going, the Constitution will be in the doldrums.
N.G.R. Prasad,
Chennai
Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra
Rahul Gandhi’s second Bharat Jodo Yatra assumes greater significance in view of the recent setbacks to the Congress in the State Assembly elections (Page 1, January 15).
Instead of making it a largely solo yatra by the Congress, it would be better to involve the respective coalition partners in each State and make it the INDIA bloc’s ‘fight for justice’.
The yatra should be utilised not to make rhetorical statements and personal criticism of the ruling party leaders, but, instead, to clearly and honestly state the programmes and policies of the INDIA coalition and how it would have an impact on people, instead of harping on the injustices and exploitation of religion for politics by the ruling dispensation.
Kosaraju Chandramouli,
Hyderabad
