As a nation, India is at the crossroads of its past karmas and their inevitable consequences. The wrong of the past which remained fossilized for centuries is being pulled out of the cave of memory. It is indeed a reality that the truth of the ‘past’, however deep it is deliberately hidden, would come out and pass a cynically irritable grin on the ‘present’, seeking reasons for its incapability to address the ruthlessness with which it was buried. Something like the same is evidently visible in the case of Gyanvapi. Today, the gyan (knowledge), emanating from the Gyanvapi of the ancient city of Banaras, is truly exhilarating to some people in the political spectrum. They don’t have to dawdle in search of issues that they can put fuel on for electoral gains. Issues of their taste are plenty and waiting for the apt moment to surface in bubbles and turn into whirlpools. Of course, for the BJP, the political climate in India gives it a free package of benefits. And it knows to which direction the mat of the mast would turn. But for the Congress, bad times never end. With Kapil Sibal making his exit, stretching the line of dissenters escaping the sinking ship, the party once again got entangled in a hotchpotch of issues making the intellectual churning that went on to dehypnotise it at Udaipur, futile. And BJP for all the reasons has the last laugh. The discovery of the Linga (phallic symbol) in the controversial mosque complex would probably give the party a nudge to what it aims for the 2024 general elections. The Ram temple in Ayodhya would also be ready by then, and the opposition parties must be aware of the blessings that the BJP is destined to tap from the ‘divinity’. It is sure that the issue is catching heat and the Hindus for no reason would be in a mood to sit silent but interestingly, except BJP, no political party seems to be gaining a coin out of it.
It is disturbing for a believer of Lord Shiva to have him concealed in a well, probably in an ablution tank. This indeed has the power to rake up anger despite the opposite side justifying, calling it a fountain. This may be the beginning of a judicial process, which may as usual, go for decades, before the judiciary spells out its final word. Starting from Somnath to Ayodhya, the resurrection of ancient Hindu monuments has often taken the political climate in the country into an unpredictable turn. Babri, for that matter, was the one that the BJP gained little political relevance and the name of Lord Ram did the magic consequently, making the party rise to become the ruling brigade in the country. The medieval history of India is a wholesome approval for the unapologetically horrendous brutality with which the cultural mansions in the country were pulled down. Numerous worship places of the Hindus were toppled and buried and the sentiments are high when someone sees his deity being thrown in an ablution tank. This is potentially capable of raking rage among the non-political elite in the country too. To identify the structure found in the well is the job of the court as part of its judicial process and to pacify the volatility in the air. But we need to appreciate the silence and contentment with which the entire issue is so far being debated and brought under judicial surveillance. The Gyanvapi seems to have the energy to fly beyond the Places of Worship Act of 1991, which demands the preservation of all shrines as inherited by independent India. It seems this issue needs no force from any political party to catch fire. The common man, with much of his spiritual inclination, gets pained to see the discovery of the debris of the cultural monuments, from under the worship places occupied by a different religion and it gives enough reason for him to dig out the truth. A person, with an ardent respect for his ancestors and their cultural architectural eloquence would raise his eyebrows on what he calls a remnant of brutality.