In the span of two days, I was at two conferences which were totally different from each other; in fact, they were a study in contrast. The first one was Connect 2006 where the top guns from the IT industry like Ramadorai of the TCS, Shiv Nadar of the HCL technologies, Kiran Karnik of NASSCOM, Anil Ambani of Ralinace Communications, Lakshmi Narayanan of Cognizant, etc were present. Dayanidhi Maran, the Union Minister for IT and Communications also was there in most of the sessions.

And, all one heard at the sessions were about the booming economy, success stories, and the lakhs of jobs the industry was going to produce in the next few years. One felt only positive vibrations and energy at Connect 2006. Dayanidhi Maran, the 38 year old minister was full of enthusiasm when he spoke of the 20 lakh jobs the industry was going to generate by 2011.

Two days later, I was at a hall to cover the 80th birthday celebrations of Ashok Singhal, the VHP leader. On the dais were the most celebrated religious leaders and a few political leaders.

What did they talk about? I heard only one slogan; build a temple to Lord Rama at Ayodhya. According to all of them, from Sudarshan of RSS to Murali Manohar Joshi of the BJP to Ashok Singhal of the VHP to all the religious leaders, the most pressing problem India faces, and the urgent work to perform is building a temple at Ayodhya. Some of them wanted temples not only at Ayodhya but at Kasi and Mathura too. According to them, India would get its identity back only if the temples were built. According to them, Hindus would be happy and united only if these temples are built.

I am a Hindu and I am proud to be one. But I don’t care whether temples are built at Ayodhya or Kasi or Mathura. I don’t see this as the most burning issue in India. I don’t think I need a temple to prove my identity as a Hindu. When there are so many temples dedicated to Lord Rama, Shiva and Krishna, why should we waste time, energy, money and human lives to build more temples?

As I sat there listening to all of them shout for Ram temple, I thought of Connect 2006 where people spoke of lack of infrastructure, power and unemployment as the problems India faces now.

So, what exactly is the gravest problem India faces? Is it the absence of a temple at Ayodhya? Or, is it the lack of infrastructure or employment opportunities? What would the young Indians prefer, a temple at Ayodhya or a vibrant economy which can generate lakhs and lakhs of jobs, where there will not be any distinction between a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim. The only thing that matters in those workplaces are your educational qualifications and your ability to perform. All the top CEOs whom I have interviewed on job reservation or job quota based on caste spoke very strongly against it. All of them said, nothing, neither religion nor caste matters to them; only merit.

That was when I noticed the age of those who spoke for the building of the temple; all were in their seventies and eighties. I wondered has age anything to do with their thinking? Are their priorities, the priorities of the young Indians? I am curious to know. I don’t deny the fact that a job or making money is not the most important thing in life; our identity matters the most but what is our identity? What does it depend on?