Should Akhilesh Singh Apologize for the Killing of Kar-Sewaks?

 

Should Akhilesh Singh Apologize for the Killing of Kar-Sewaks?

Shrikant G. Talageri 

 

I stopped reading newspapers and watching the news channels since 2019, because I realized what was going to be happening in India thenceforth. However, I am constantly on the internet, and often important news items do catch my eye. yesterday I had been to the house of a (Modi-bhakt) friend in whose house news channels are continuously running whole day long. The particular channel was India TV, and the hot news going on and on was about Akhilesh Yadav (the chief of the Samajwadi Party) apparently going to be going for darshan at the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Ayodhya on 12^th December 2026. The channel was agog with reaction to this news from all sides (with spokespersons and journalists from the BJP, AIMIM and SP constantly stuck on the screen).

 

The headlines flashing across the screen all the time mainly spoke about the fact thay Akhilesh Singh’s father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, as the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh had ordered firing on kar-sewaks in Ayodhya on 30/10/1990 and 2/11/1990: the official death tally was 15 (but the VHP claims to have identified 59 victims). The headlines asked poignant questions:

“Do nāv mein savārī … kyā akhileś ko paḍegī bhārī?” (“With one foot each in two boats … will it cost Akhilesh heavily?”),

“Akhileś kā jai śrī rām… ayodhyā karegā viśvās?” (“Will Ayodhya trust Akhilesh saying ‘Jay Shri Ram’?”)

And “apne mahāpāp ke liye māfī māṅgiye” (“Apologize for your Great Sin”):

BJP spokespersons repeatedly demanded that Akhilesh apologize for his father’s Great Sin before daring to think of entering the Ram Temple.

 

Two general points:

1. Any Hindu can visit the Ayodhya temple. [So can non-Hindus, if they do so with respect, but that is a secondary issue].

2. It is Akhilesh’s father who ordered the firings, not Akhilesh himself. It is an Abrahamic idea that descendants must pay for the sins of their fathers. While Akhilesh is also a multiple-times sinner against Hinduism, he is in no way himself responsible for the firings which killed the kar-sewaks.

 

But should Akhilesh apologize for his father’s actions anyway?

Yes, but only if Narendra Modi, and the BJP as a party, first apologize for rewarding Mulayam Singh for ordering the firing on kar-sewaks, and for simultaneously insulting the martyred kar-sewaks and treating them like dirt, by awarding the Padma Vibhushan award to Mulayam Singh Yadav (post-humously) on April 5 2023. It was ultimately on the foundation laid on the corpses of those martyrs (and others before and after them) that the BJP shot up from 2 seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984 to 353 seatsin 2019.

Much can be written and said on all the different aspects of the matter, But this is the only fundamental point I find necessary to make on the subject.