Thakur Ranjit Singh
Auckland, January 26, 2024
While studying journalism in New Zealand, one of my papers was on ‘White Mainstream Media,’ in which I discussed how the newsrooms of this media in New Zealand fail to reflect the demographic makeup, that it remains white, not diversified and reflected the colours now celebrated on either side of the Tasman.
Therefore, it is not surprising that no cultural or religious sensitivities are applied by European journalists, many of whom are copywriters who copy from other overseas media like a blinkered BBC or Al Jazeera.
TV One, TV3/Newshub and others in New Zealand and ABC, SBS and 9News in Australia came up with misleading news hurting the Hindus in both countries and all around the world. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Australia has taken up this case with relevant authorities and accused these media platforms of promoting Hindu hatred in Australia.
New Zealander’s complaint
This complaint has been made to the TV stations in New Zealand by Jai Chand of the Fiji Seniors Federation of New Zealand.
He said, “Your reporting was inaccurate and not sufficiently researched which has caused distress to some of the Hindu community in New Zealand. It was reported that the Mandir was constructed upon the site of a Mosque which was destroyed by Hindu fundamentalists. You fail to mention the site was the birthplace of Lord Ram long before Moghuls and the invaders set foot in India. You fail to state that the original Mandir was destroyed numerous times by Mughal invaders and thousands of men women and children were slaughtered by the invaders who were trying to defend the site of Lord Ram’s birthplace, or Janmabhoomi. You also fail to mention that the high court of India declared the site as a Hindu place of worship thus the rightful site for the Temple. Strangely, NZ media is so blinkered, this CIVILISED action by India is a testament to the rule of law and a flourishing democracy that India today is, unlike most other countries sharing the belief of the invaders. I would like to see that your research is accurate and the TV station should correct and present the news in full; also an apology to all the Hindus is expected.”
Some real facts
These people need to see India and its history in a different light, where the King’s Britain is now led by a person of Indian origin and similar is the story in many other countries.
What Western journalists now need to appreciate is that India is not a land of snake charmers and rope-walkers but a Nation that has surpassed NASA in claiming the skies.
What the inauguration of Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya depicted was righting a wrong done historically by the Moghul invaders over 500 years ago by forcefully building a Mosque at the site of the birthplace of Lord Rama in Ayodhya. All the evidence and background stories have already been covered by the long court case.
आ ही गए pic.twitter.com/rAAsFpaDlC
— Vikas Katewa (@vikaskatewa4) January 22, 2024
The land on which the medieval Mosque, Babri Masjid, stood is traditionally considered by Hindus to be the birthplace of Lord Ram and at the core of the Ayodhya dispute.
The five-judge Supreme Court bench heard the title dispute cases from August to October 2019. On 9 November 2019, the Court, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, announced its verdict, vacating the previous decision and ruling that the land belonged to the government based on tax records. It further ordered the land to be handed over to a Trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give an alternate two hectares (five acres) tract of land to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to build a Mosque.
Archaeologist K K Muhammad of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said that during an excavation of the site, officials had found the remains of a Temple and this was used as evidence in the Supreme Court of India.
The civilised Hindu Tradition
On 5 February 2020, the Government of India announced the formation of a Trust to construct a Temple at the site. Thus, the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was established. It allocated an alternative site for the construction of a Mosque in Dhannipur, Ayodhya.
Hindus constitute about 80% of India’s population. However, the case of Ayodhya was conducted in a civilised manner through the court system and evidence presented based on the ASI, and other evidence, proving that Ram and Ramayan are not myths.
What the building of Shri Ram Mandir and related development in Ayodhya in particular, and throughout India depicts is that the foreign culture of the invaders had been holding the progress in India mostly under the dynastic Nehru family since 1947. The progress that India has made under the Narendra Modi government in less than ten years far surpasses that of Congress which ruled the country for more than 60 years.
What surprises a person like me, a third-generation Fiji Hindu, is the extent of ignorance about the real Hindu culture and real Indian history.
One of the main reasons for this anomaly and deficiency appears to be the lackadaisical approach of the non-Hindu Nehru family. I wonder if anybody noticed that none with the name of Gandhi or Nehru was present at the Ram Mandir opening?
Indians need to realise that after independence, five successive Education Ministers in India were non-Hindus, sharing the beliefs of the invaders. The Indian School curriculum taught more about Mughal Emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb and the prowess of the foreign invaders rather than about peaceful, compassionate teachings of Hinduism, Ramayan, Bhagavat Gita, Dayanand, Tulsidas and numerous Hindu sages.
Even I was cursing my ancestors and elders for carrying and displaying hatred among brothers, and not showing the love of Ram and Bharat that displayed strong brotherly love between half-brothers in Ramayan.
I earnestly hope that people learn to appreciate the history of Ayodhya, and the Return of Lord Ram, not after 14 years of exile, but after 500 years of being desecrated by the invaders.
Mr Modi and his government have sprung energy and inspired Bollywood. Some examples are movies such as The Tashkent Files, the Kashmir Files, Uri: The Surgical Strike and the 12th Fail.
We hope that with Ram Rajya, the next step will be reclaiming and retrieving Mathura from the ruins of the invaders.
Thakur Ranjit Singh is a third-generation Fiji Hindu, a journalist, a media commentator and a blogger at Fiji Pundit, based in Auckland, New Zealand. Email: thakurjifj@gmail.com
