Debating Temples

I recently attended an NDTV talk show with a few friends of mine. The show was called Left Right & Centre, hosted by the very pretty and very sharp Nidhi Raazdan, and was about the top national developments of the week. The panelists included the well known Union Minister Kapil Sibbal, the lesser known Sudheendra Kulkarni from the BJP, Nandita Das and one more lawyer whose name I cant recall. The audience consisted mainly of college going kids like us, the so-called 'youth' of today. 

The BJP had come out with its manifesto the same day, and that was the main talking point of the show. No wait! One paragraph was the talking point - The Ram Mandir!! Nidhi Raazdan and the entire audience attacked poor Mr. Kulkarni for being a member of this communal party, which is trying to divide the nation along communal lines, which is trying to cash on vote-bank politics, which is just not realizing what the youth wants and what not. Firstly, I have never seen so biased a host! Nidhi Raazdan must be a registered Congress volunteer or something, because she left no stone unturned in embarrassing Mr Kulkarni, without even giving him adequate time to speak (Mr. Sibbal faced no such problems). Moving on, I was surprised to see many of my fellow audience members practically boiling with anger over the Ram Mandir issue. 'Mr Kulkarni! We dont care about temples! We want development! Dont disillusion the youth with your communal politics! We are disgusted! By bringing the Ram Mandir back, you have shown us yet again that all you care about is Hindutva!' I admit that the youth does not care whether Ayodhya gets a fancy temple or not, but I was quite appalled with such extreme reactions. So I decided to have a look at the so called 'communal' manifesto. Guess what? Ram Mandir finds a brief spot in the penultimate page, under the heading : Preserving Our Cultural Heritage. Here is the exact text:

There is an overwhelming desire of the people in India and abroad to have a grand temple at the birth place of Sri Ram in Ayodhya. The BJP will explore all possibilities, including negotiations and judicial proceedings, to facilitate the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Come on guys! Is this communal? It says negotiations and judicial proceedings! Its on the second last page! Can these 4 lines actually disillusion the 'youth' ?? And those who think the party plays the Hindutva card, please check the Minority Communities section of the manifesto - which by the way comes much before the Ram Mandir and takes up much more print space. 

There is a very strong possibility that Nidhi Raazdan and her friends at NDTV will never discuss what's written on the remaining 48 pages of the manifesto. Its not spicy you see! It talks about development, not Hindus vs Muslims. And since NDTV and others will not discuss those pages, the informed and aware youth of this country will not read it either. Any guy who watched Left Right & Centre that night would've thought - That damn BJP - arrogant communal party - I'll never give them my vote! Well, hopefully some of us will actually bother to read the manifestos of both the parties, and make a truly 'informed' decision! I'm not saying that we should all vote for BJP instead, but not voting for them purely because of hyped up issues like the Ram Mandir is surely not right.

The BJP manifesto can be found on this website : http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/

The Congress manifesto: http://www.congress.org.in/manifesto09-eng.pdf

Mayawati's manifesto: Are you kidding me?