Not quite the Midnight's child but born less than two years after India gained Independence, I cannot help but reminisce about the time when we affirmed our common humanity despite our differences, strove with hope to build a "Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic committed to Justice, Equality and Liberty for the people." While respecting and treating the panoply of religions without fear or favour, the framers of our Constitution clearly did not intend for the State to involve itself in promoting any form of religion. The Constitution advocated a secular humanism that emphatically propagated a complete separation of religious activities and State functions. It has been a rocky journey with many misses and some hits, but today, those noble aspirations expressed in the Preamble to the Constitution seem like an absurd fantasy, a cruel joke.

Ours is no longer the country that the founding fathers fought and died for. The cosmopolitan spirit of brotherhood, tolerance and inclusion has been all but snuffed out by the creeping majoritarianism and perverse hyper-nationalism sweeping across the land. Religion is now being deployed as a dubious expedient for gaining worldly control.

I remember Arun Shourie, arguably the most intrepid editor in Indira Gandhi's time, lambasting her conduct during her election campaign in Chikmagalur in 1978, pointing out her hypocrisy in "preaching secularism in between visits to every temple in the vicinity." Religiosity in the public square was then frowned upon. Today, religion has not only become integral to politics, but the flaunting of religious fervour has become de rigueur for any politician who wants to "make it".

To reductively brush off the buzz around the January 22 Ram Mandir inauguration as a gimmick for electoral purposes would be a complete misreading of a grim situation. The planned mass mobilisation of the majority community – the running of 1000 trains to Ayodhya from various parts of the country, the ruling party's arrangements to host 50,000 pilgrims every day, the invitation to 150 disparate groups cutting across caste lines and 4000 holy men for the consecration ceremony, the installation of 5 lakh LED screens in temples, the outreach to Hindus across the world, the PM's injunction to celebrate January 22 as Diwali by lighting diyas at home – is nothing less than a carefully calibrated campaign of consolidation of Hindu society and a call to arms for furthering the "Kamandal" project whose ultimate mission is the reclaiming of temples, implementation of the uniform civil code, ban on cow slaughter, halal meat, the hijab and a lot more. 

The clear subterranean text is not difficult to guess, which is the "othering" of minorities and Muslims in particular. At its core, the mobilisation of the masses (only Hindus) for the Ram Temple consecration is clearly intended to whip up a communal consensus on the Hindu Rashtra.

There are disturbing markers that capture the zeitgeist of our times - of a majoritarian State that is on a mission to reduce minorities to second-class citizens. The Ram temple is not quite done, but there are already menacing rumblings around the Gyanvapi masjid in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura. We know by now that the slogan, "Yeh to sirf jhanki hai, Kashi-Mathura abhi baaki hai (This is just a trailer, Kashi and Mathura are still pending)", is no idle boast!

Our Home Minister who says it like it is, has announced to the world that the Citizens Amendment Act (CAA), which brazenly discriminates against Muslims, will soon be implemented. As ominous is his calculated statement that Modi had cured Gujarat of riots by teaching rioters (read Muslims) a lesson in 2002. By obliquely suggesting that Modi had presided over the nightmarish events in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning, the Home Minister is thumbing a nose at the Supreme Court verdict exonerating Modi of any involvement in the genocide that followed in the wake of Godhra. Modi's closest aide has made this provocative claim because he knows that for millions of BJP followers, the undying faith in Modi stems primarily from their fond belief that he is the only leader who can deal effectively with the "Muslim menace."

Of piece with the planned, all-out offensive against Muslims is the obnoxious, dastardly attack on the Muslim community by Member of Parliament Ramesh Bidhuri from within the sacred precincts of Parliament, even as senior BJP members beamed with delight. No action was taken against him. In a hate-filled environment that thrives on Muslim bashing, this hatemonger could well be the new poster boy of the BJP like Yogi Adityanath and Sadhvi Pragya before him.

The present regime has smashed the flimsy secular facade that corralled the State from religion, which is now front and centre in the public arena and the ultimate arbiter of temporal power. The savage conduct of the Bhakts in the last few years vindicate Umberto Eco's observation that ordinary people are never so completely and enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction. The collective delirium over the consecration of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22, 2024, represents the triumph of religious fundamentalism over secularism, Hindutva over Hinduism, religiosity over religion, exclusion over inclusion, hate over brotherhood.

Lord Ram must be distraught, if not enraged, at what is being done in his name. He is the epitome of justice, compassion, peace and non-violence. He personifies truthfulness, forgiveness, accountability and empathy with his subjects. From the Ramayana, we know that Lord Ram was the perfect son, the ideal husband and the quintessentially responsible ruler. As depicted in the Ramayana, Lord Ram's story, in essence, embodies the victory of righteousness over evil and the advent of Ram Rajya.

The greatest Indian and Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, who was deeply influenced by the Ramayana, in an expository piece that appeared in "Young Indian" in 1929, explained what Ram Rajya means: "By Ram Rajya, I do not mean Hindu Raj. I mean Ram Raj, the kingdom of God. For me Ram and Rahim are one and the same; I acknowledge no other God but the one God of truth and righteousness….one of true democracy in which the meanest citizen could be sure of swift justice without an elaborate procedure." For the Mahatma, Ram Rajya meant "equal rights to both prince and pauper." Is it any surprise then that Gandhism is viewed as a mortal enemy of Hindutva? But by the looks of it, Hindutva is up and running and to hell with the Mahatma and secularism.

The present regime, which has the country in its vice-like grip, is the antithesis of Ram Rajya - a merciless tyranny of injustice, intolerance and inequality. The Ram Temple has been appropriated and projected as the singular triumph of its imperious leader. It is a travesty that a bit player in the Ramjanmabhumi movement has donned the mantle of architect and high priest of the Ram Temple.

In this government's psychopathic fixation to credit every success to the Supreme Leader, the pivotal contribution of stalwarts like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati and others who spearheaded the Ramjanmabhumi movement and pitched it to the centre of national politics has been played down. Media reports suggest that Advani, though extended an invitation, has been advised to skip the 22nd January event because of his frail health. For good reason, the dubious role played by the Congress in fashioning the Ram Temple has been blanked out. Still, those with a sense of history remember that it was the Congress government that in 1986 allowed access to the idols insidiously installed in the Babri Masjid in 1949. Besides, to quote Sumit Sarkar, it was the Congress government that glamorised the Ramayana into a "pseudo-nationalist" TV serial that whipped up our worst tribal instincts. The fact that religion is secondary to glitz and glamour becomes apparent when one considers that a glamorous clone is replacing the original Ram Lalla idol. These guys have no sense of heritage, history or the sanctity of religious artefacts!

The grand consecration on January 22 is slated to be the most extraordinary politico-religious event of our time and will be presided over by the high priest of Hindutva, the PM of India. But far from being the crowning glory of a great religion, the Ram Mandir, built on the ruins of a mosque vandalised by religious fanatics and now in the hands of the vandals and their mentors, is, in truth, a symbol of the triumph of majoritarian nationalism. As an outlier who has watched with cold fear the march of Hindutva to the centre of our national life, the Ram temple symbolises the formal investiture of the Hindu Rashtra and the death of secular India. One wonders what our founding fathers would have thought of such a radical transmutation of the body politic. Their angst can best be expressed by invoking Mahatma's last anguished cry: "Hey Ram!" 

(The writer is a former civil servant. The views are personal)