National award winning singer from Kerala KS Chithra in a video, not too long ago urged her fans to chant hymns of Lord Ram and light diyas on January 22 2024 when the Pran Prathisthan of the newly constructed Ram Mandir was being held in Ayodhya. ‘When the consecration ceremony is held in Ayodhya on January 22, everybody should recite the Ram mantra ‘Sri Rama, Jaya Rama, Jaya Rama’ at 12.30 pm. Similarly, everyone should light a five-wick lamp at home.’ she said in the video, which ended with a prayer ‘Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu’, exhorting god’s blessings be showered on everyone.

Following this, all hell broke loose. The singer, known more for her humility and soft-spokenness, than her prowess in singing, and who has never courted controversy was trolled and criticized on social media.

While many supported the humble, ever-smiling songstress, many criticized her. Her colleague and singer G Venugopal was one of the first to support her through a post in Malayalam. ‘If we disagree with her, why can’t we pardon her at least once?’ He pleaded.

Writer Indu Menon wasn’t kind to Chithra as Venugopal . She thundered, ‘Chithra may be singing hymns in praise of Ram, Vishnu, Sita and Murugan. But that does not mean standing with killing innocent people’. ‘She has got freedom of expression, and can join any side of the issue. But glorifying a cause that led to genocide is cruel even if it is meant inoffensively. Even if you kindle five-wick lamps, no light is going to fill your minds’, Indu continued.

Singer Sooraj Santhosh took to Instagram to attack Chithra. ‘The highlight is the innocence of the people who say, “Loka Samasta  Sukhino Bhavantu”, conveniently forgetting history, putting aside the fact that the temple was built by demolishing a mosque’, he said.

Another social media user said, ‘no secular person can accept the construction of Ram Temple in the place of the destroyed babri Mazjid. It was political vulgarity that sliced the heart of India.  There is no place for a God there. There is only place for politics of Sangh Parivar. Chitra must understand this’. While another advised her to choose her words carefully.

This unsavory incident was green pasture for politicians to graze on. Minister of State for External Affairs, V. muralidharan supported the beleaguered singer. He was pained by the manner in which the singer was bullied and harassed on social media platforms. ‘She asked people to chant Ram’s name and to light the diya’. He said.’ ‘Is it a crime to light the diya in Kerala? Is it a crime to exhort Ram in Kerala?’ he wondered. ‘Why are the police silent on such bullying? He wondered.

The minister then proceeded to step on the political accelerator. ‘I know that people who are behind this are the same ones who tried to destroy Sabarimala by its tradition’. ‘Both the ruling and opposition parties are trying to encourage such elements’. He complained.’ ‘We won’t allow Kerala to become a “Taliban” state, where freedom of expression is curtailed’. He threatened.

When Muralidharan squeals, his party colleague in Kerala, and the state BJP Chief K. Surendran barks. The practice was followed in this instant too. Surendran was ‘appalled’ at the attacks on Chitra. The politician in him went berserk, as he is wont to. Given a chance. ‘Under the rule of Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala, things are such that a Hindu cannot freely share her beliefs with fellow believers’. He lamented that the Congress in Kerala was hand-in-glove with left-jihadist forces on the issue’. ‘The BJP Kerala unit extends our unwavering support to Chitra’. He offered.

It was reported in the new Indian Express that the songstress’s video was recorded when certain Sangh Parivar elements visited her with an akshat offering. This cast suspicion on the identity of persons who recorded the video, to later post it on social media. Was Chitra fixed? Was she made an unsuspecting scapegoat? Many wondered. Her opinion on the Ram temple and the Pran Prathistha might have been solicited by the Sanghis who visited her. The singer, who might have spelt out her opinion innocently, might have been videographed. The video might have been circulated in the social media by the Sangh elements desperately searching for support,  ‘religious passion’ and legitimacy from people of Kerala on the construction of the Ram temple, by having a public figure speak in support of one of the biggest fallacies witnessed in post-independent India. An unsuspecting Chitra might have been ‘used’ without her consent by the Sanghis to further their dark and venomous designs.

Why am I dwelling on this incident now, when dust has settled on the newly constructed Ram Temple, and when Chitra herself might have forgotten about her video fiasco?

It is because construction of the new Ram temple and incidents that led to it regurgitate, causing considerable heartburn.  It sticks out like a painful gangrenous thumb in the history of India of the twenty first century. When Indians has been reduced to a bunch of lunatic excavators, searching for idols they believe of belonging to Hindu deities below mosques across the country.

The other more compelling reason why this issue has been brought up quite belatedly is the issue of ‘freedom of expression’ can of worms Minister Muralidharan opened with respect to the Chitra video.

Chitra certainly reserves her right to voice her sentiments on Lord Ram whom she believes in. She undoubtedly does. There is no question on that.

In the same vain, people who felt her public exhortation on Lord Ram unpalatable, too certainly have the freedom and right to express that. As much as chitra reserves her right to express her sentiments. Muralidharan went overboard by terming chitra’s detractors ‘Talibanis’, and their reaction ‘Talibanization’. Freedom of expression, in today’s India is rationed to a select few whose opinion is in line with that of the powers-that-be at the centre. Freedom of expression is tailored to what is being expressed. Tailored to opinions that do not criticize right-wing fanatics and their masters who spew venomous religiosity and divide the nation along religious lines to pocket power. To opinions that aren’t incongruent to those of hate-mongers that Sangh Parivar elements are.

‘Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu!’