Three decades after the BJP began using the Ram temple issuevia the party’s Palampur resolution as a political gambit, it is again hopingto cross the hurdle of the forthcoming general election by exploiting Hindureligious sentiments.
To do this, the party will expect a favourable judgment fromthe Supreme Court on the subject in the next few weeks. But the party must bekeeping its fingers crossed for one can never be sure.
It is unlikely that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have aPlan B in case the verdict does not meet their expectations. For one thing, aresort to violence in such an eventuality will be counter-productive althoughthe RSS has warned of a revival of a movement on the lines of what happened in1992-93 if the ground is not prepared for building the temple either via thejudgment or a law.
It may be recalled that countrywide riots had followed thedemolition of the Babri masjid in 1992 and the subsequent terrorist attacks inMumbai in the following year. When the general election is due, however, inthree or four months’ time, violence will damage the party and the parivarrather than help them although at one time, the belief was that a riot tends toconsolidate the Hindu vote in the BJP’s favour. But the times have changed. Inan India of malls and multiplexes where the burgeoning middle class believes ina consumerist culture, any large-scale disturbances are unwelcome to apolitical party, especially in a metro. Yet, a favourable judgement has becomea must for the BJP because it believes, as does the RSS, that in the absence of“achhe din” when unemployment is making the youth turn away from the partyunlike five years ago, the temple remains the Hindutva camp’s only viableelectoral card.
Neither the supply of cooking gas connections, nor theschemes for rural electrification and cheaper houses, nor the (largely empty)Jan Dhan bank balances, nor the promise of higher minimum support prices forcrops is enough to set off the kind of a wave which swept the BJP to power in2014.
The reason is that these endeavours do not make a dent inthe unemployment problem, which can only be solved via substantial industrialand social services investments by the private sector.
But these are absent because of the atmosphere of tensionand fear which prevails, especially among the minorities as a result of theviolent antics of the gaurakshaks and others in the saffron fringe whose latestobjective is to stop the new year’s day celebrations.
Since the BJP’s failures have been on two fronts – economicand social – the RSS had begun to initiate steps on the temple to recover someof the lost ground which is already evident in the BJP’s defeats in theKarnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections.
In its eagerness to play the temple card, some of the RSSspokesmen had even begun to criticize the judiciary, expressing surprise thatwhen the court could meet at midnight to decide on a case concerning aterrorist, why it chose to take its time in considering the temple issue.
In some of these statements, including BJP president AmitShah’s advice to the judiciary not to give orders which cannot be implemented,as in Sabarimala, the parivar’s unease with the present constitutional order isapparent. The Hindutva camp has always believed that the constitution islargely based on a Western model whereas the founding fathers should haveclosely followed the diktats in the Manusmriti, which reflect the Indianreality. It is this mindset which made the saffronities say in 1992-93 that thecourts can have no say in a matter of faith such as the putative birthplace ofLord Ram.
The same attitude makes the Hindutva lobby decry thejudicial orders on the Diwali and dahi-handi celebrations with Meghalaya’ssaffron governor, Tathagata Roy, asking why the court doesn’t ban the azaan,the call for prayers from mosques.
The BJP, however, has become more cautious about what to sayabout the judiciary and the constitution, with Prime Minister Narendra Modidescribing the constitution as a holy book. The party now prefers to leave itto the RSS and the likes of Roy to express what can perhaps be called theparivar’s real mind. But the big test for the BJP about its adherence to theconstitution will come when the Supreme Court delivers its Ayodhya verdict,especially if it is not fully to the saffron camp’s liking.
For the RSS, however, it is a question of now or never. Ifwork is not started soon on building the temple, it will never be done sincethe BJP’s political prospects do not look very bright. Even if the NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA) gets a majority, the BJP will not be able to push thecase for the temple if it doesn’t have a majority of its own, which looksunlikely, for as the Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan has said, the templeis the BJP’s agenda, not the NDA’s.
—Views expressed are personal.
