Capt Amar Jeet Kumar (Retd)
(Asian independent) This is reference to article by PM and Chairman of Shree Somnath Trust ‘. PM Modi, as Chairman of Shree Somnath Trust, says ‘Somnath’s saga of faith and resilience’ and announces special puja for the next thousand days. A thousand days. That’s 2 years 9 months. Conveniently, that covers the next difficult Assembly elections. Coincidence? Prime Minister of Secular Nation, Chairman of Mandir Trust. How? Article 27 says State shall not compel taxes for any religion. Article 25 gives every citizen freedom of religion. Constitution says government has no religion. So how can the Prime Minister head of a secular government head a Hindu temple trust? If PM can be Somnath chairman, why not Ajmer Dargah sajjada? Why not Golden Temple trustee? Why not Vatican liaison? You can’t be PM of 140 crore and pujari of one. That’s not pluralism. That’s pandal politics. Faith Is Fine. Faith As Electoral Calendar Is Not: Somnath’s saga is real. Mahmud Ghazni broke it. Sardar Patel rebuilt it. Faith survived. Resilience survived. But making PM the chairman and announcing ‘thousand days puja’ is not about faith. It’s about timing. Next 1000 days = next Assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar.
You don’t need to be psephologist to see the link. You just need a calendar. When faith is used as countdown timer for votes, it stops being faith. It becomes vote bank puja. Secular Govt Has No Religion. PM Must Act Like That: If Govt has no religion, its head cannot have official religion. You cannot take oath on Constitution in morning and take blessings on temple trust letterhead in evening and claim both are same. One is duty. Other is belief. Mix them and you don’t get ‘Ram Rajya’. You get Raj of Raj. Real Somnath Lesson Resilience, Not Ritual: Somnath teaches us: even after 17 attacks, faith rose again. Not because king was priest. But because people rebuilt. Today we don’t need PM to organise puja for 1000 days. We need PM to organize jobs for 1000 days. To organize MSP for 1000 days. To organise Agniveer pension for 1000 days. Temple will stand. People need to stand too. If You Want to BeChairman, Resign As PM: Be devotee. Be trustee. Be Hindu. No issue. But don’t be PM while doing it. Because when you speak from Red Fort, 140 crores listen. Muslim hears ‘puja for 1000 days. Christian hears ‘our festival next?’. Atheist hears ‘Constitution was for optics. Sardar Patel rebuilt Somnath. He didn’t make himself chairman. That’s the difference between statesman and campaigner. Somnath’s saga is faith. Your calendar is politics. PM of secular nation cannot be chairman of one temple. Next 1000 days should be puja for Constitution, not for campaign.
If you love Somnath, let Somnath be Somnath. Don’t make it polling booth.
Capt Amar Jeet Kumar (Retd) Environmentalist Psychotherapist Kharar (Punjab)
