It's back to basics: Amit Shah prays for a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The BJP brought back its core Hindutva agenda to the discussion table on Saturday with Amit Shah, the party’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s close aide, announcing in Ayodhya that a grand Ram temple would be built there.
Emerging from the makeshift temple at the disputed site, Shah said, “Millions of Hindus want a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. We will begin work to build a large temple as early as possible.”
He quickly added that he had also offered his prayers to free the country from Congress’ “misrule”.
Shah has been making frequent trips to different parts of UP since he was chosen as the chief political strategist for the state in May. Till Saturday, he had steered clear of a definite Hindutva agenda.
It’s clear that the BJP has a complex game plan for UP. Although it isn’t making a big issue of it, Hindutva will be a major plank to get the divided Hindu votes collectively. Given UP’s minefield of caste equations, party insiders said 10 months aren’t enough to get the caste calculus right. So, the BJP will have to win the polarised Hindu vote.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, deputy leader of the BJP in Rajya Sabha, said Shah could not be expected to avoid any reference to the party’s longstanding desire to build a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Even Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the party’s vice-president, said Shah’s statement should not be interpreted as a definite step towards Hindutva. He agreed that the Ayodhya temple was too emotive an issue to be omitted from the party’s agenda. From his perspective, it looked like the BJP will focus on the Ayodhya temple in UP, where the BJP’s vote share has plummeted to 15% from 36% in the last 15 years.
The Congress immediately pounced and said the BJP is communalising politics, yet again.
Senior BJP leaders said there was a definite reason to underline the Ayodhya issue in the districts to the east of Awadh, including the Devipatan division areas. In 2009, the Congress had done well in this area — which includes Gonda, Sravasti, Balarampur, Bahraich, Barabanki, Faizabad, Basti and Siddharth Nagar. There is a substantial Muslim population in these parts and the BJP’s immediate ambition is to polarise the Hindu votes.
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