Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI, JAN 31 : Days after Mani Shankar Aiyar’s daughter Suranya said she would protest the Ram Mandir consecration, the Jangpura Extension resident’s welfare association wrote to her and her father demanding an apology for “creating tension and hatred”, according to the Indian Express.

The RWA asked them to move out if they still believed their actions were correct, the report said.

Calling it a ‘hate speech act’, RWA president Dr Kapil Kakar said Suranya announcing a 3-day fast against the temple in their “peace-loving locality” was unfortunate, especially since most residents were refugees who lost everything in Pakistan. He added that she should have understood the Ram Mandir was built after 500 years and a unanimous Supreme Court verdict.

“A Hate speech and act by a resident like you, Ms Aiyar, for announcing a 3-day fast, in a peace-loving locality where most residents inhabiting here came from Pakistan after losing all their wealth and fortune, is highly unfortunate,” the letter said.

The letter stated that while Suranya had freedom of speech, it could not be absolute. It asked the Aiyars to follow norms of responsible citizenship and not provoke hatred between communities.

For her part, Suranya said what she had done was express her pain in a peaceful manner.

“I expressed the reasons for my disagreement in my speech earlier. And I made a spiritual presentation of my own pain about this by fasting peacefully in my home,” she said on Facebook.

She also said she won’t interact with the media as it was only spreading toxicity.

“I just received a call from a television channel saying that a certain Residents Welfare Association has issued a notice against me for fasting in my house over the matter on which I have already spoken…I was asked to give a “byte” and so on.

“But I believe that one of the reasons why the atmosphere in the country is so toxic is because of the manner in which television is being used to have what are called debates which are not debates; the manner in which these channels are conducting themselves…it is just not functioning in a way where it is doing anything other than creating confusion and toxicity,” she said in her post.

She also said she is not interested in having a ‘shouting match’ on TV, and urged the media to come up with a more civilized form of discussion.

“I think that all of us in India deserve a better kind of conversation, and a better kind of engagement…whether you agree with what I say or not, I think that somewhere inside the people who know me and educated people who are watching what is going on will also feel that this is not how we should be conducting ourselves.

“So I hope that this gives everybody an opportunity to think about where we are going, and how we are going and whether we want to become like this,” she added.

BJP leader Amit Malviya reacted to the RWA’s “terse letter”, saying it should serve as a message for those who freely abuse Hindu beliefs.

“This should serve as a message for everyone, who think abusing Hindu beliefs is par for the course. The Jangpura Extension Welfare Association, in a terse letter, have asked Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and his daughter to apologise for defiling the Pran Pratistha ceremony at Ram Mandir, and leave the residential colony,” Malviya said on X.

-The New Indian Express