The name of Lord Rama has become the biggest selling point in India today, and the biggest trump card for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is going to be Ayodhya, said renowned Malayalam writer T Padamanabhan on Sunday, January 21. He was speaking at the release of the Malayalam translation of Communalism - a Primer, written by the late historian and professor Bipan Chandra, at Kannur. The book, along with many names of history including Gandhi and Nehru and even Darwin, have been removed from schools of India, Padmanabhan said.
“The biggest Rama devotee was Mahatma Gandhi. He only watched one movie in his life and that was Vijay Bhatt’s Ram Rajya (1943). When he died, he recited just two words: Hey Ram. I don’t know how many ‘Ramayana’s and [texts about] ‘Rama’s prominent persons like PT Usha who are going for the consecration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya have read. But I know one thing. The biggest selling point in the country today is the name of Rama. If you don’t recite his name, if you don’t greet each other with ‘Jai Sri Ram’, you will be stabbed to death in this country. It has happened before, and there is every possibility that there will be a lot more of it happening now,” Padmanabhan said.
He also added that the temple at Ayodhya and the name of Rama will be used as the biggest trump cards for the parliamentary elections happening in a few months.
The National Book Trust which published Bipan Chandra’s book had decided to stop reprinting its Hindi version in 2016, inviting the wrath of academics. Chintha Publishers is bringing out the Malayalam version ‘Vargheeyatha’. Communist politician MA Baby released the book at a function organised at Padmanabhan’s house in Kannur on Sunday. .