MP poll: Why ruling BJP is banking on Ram temple card to retain power

With hardly a couple of weeks left for polling, the Ram temple issue seems to have taken the centre-stage in Madhya Pradesh where the ruling BJP is battling anti-incumbency and voter fatigue.

Though the BJP had been putting up hoardings of the Ram temple crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its construction in Ayodhya, the issue came into the spotlight when Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced during a rally in former CM Kamal Nath’s home turf Chhindwara, “Madhya Pradesh is set to celebrate Diwali thrice in the coming months. First, you will celebrate the festival of lights on November 12. The second time you will celebrate Diwali is when the BJP will form the government in the state. You will again celebrate Diwali when PM Modi installs the idol of Lord Ram in Ayodhya’s Ram Temple.”

Shah accused the successive Congress regimes of hampering the construction of the Ram temple. “Since independence, Congress has been halting and delaying the Ram temple. Rahul Baba used to taunt every day that the temple will be built but the date will not be told. Rahul Baba, the temple has been built, the date has also been told. Just come for darshan, you too will be satisfied,” he said.

At daggers drawn

The BJP has put up hoardings and posters of the Ram temple being built in Ayodhya across the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. The posters announce, “Bhavya Ram Mandir bankar ho raha hai taiyyar, fir iss baar BJP Sarkar (A grand Ram temple is being constructed, this time again there will be a BJP government).” Interestingly, the posters were widely visible in the state during Amit Shah’s three-day tour.

The campaign focusing on the Ram temple gathered steam particularly after the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra invited Prime Minister Modi to the temple’s consecration ceremony on January 22. Hoardings proclaiming the construction of the “Bhavya Ram Mandir” and seeking electoral support for the BJP propped up in various parts of Madhya Pradesh. With the temple’s image in the backdrop, these hoardings had the photos of Modi, BJP president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and BJP state president VD Sharma, among others.

On the other hand, the Congress has knocked on the doors of the Election Commission, complaining that the BJP was using religion to draw votes in the assembly elections. “The BJP is using the picture of the under-construction Ram temple to garner votes. Along with the picture of the Ram temple, photos of BJP assembly candidates against whom criminal cases have been registered under serious sections have been used. The model code of conduct is being openly violated. Ram Temple is a symbol of the faith of every citizen and leader of political parties in the country. In such a situation, BJP is insulting Lord Ram and Sanatan Dharma by using Ram Temple to win the elections,” said Congress leader from Indore Rakesh Yadav.

The BJP is counting on the Ram temple issue to help it tide over anti-incumbency and counter the Congress pitch for subsidies. Incidentally, riding high on the Ram temple movement in 1990, the BJP was voted to power with an impressive 39 per cent votes in the undivided Madhya Pradesh. The party bagged 220 assembly seats out of the total 320. The Congress managed to win just 56 seats with a 33 per cent vote share. The party is now hoping for a repeat of its 1990 performance while projecting its government’s success in turning the Ram temple dream into reality.

War of words

Countering the BJP’s narrative on the Ram temple issue, Kamal Nath recently courted a controversy, saying that the BJP couldn't appropriate credit for the Ram temple in Ayodhya and that the role of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi couldn't be ignored.

In an interview, Nath said that Rajiv Gandhi “got the locks opened” of the temporary Ram temple at the disputed Babri Masjid site in 1986 to allow Hindus to worship on the premises. He also accused the BJP of trying to take complete credit for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “The BJP cannot take credit for the Ram Mandir. The Ram Mandir does not belong to any one party. The BJP considers the Ram Mandir as its property. The Ram temple belongs to the entire country,” the Congress leader said.

Reacting sharply to his remarks, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the BJP never took credit for the temple while questioning Rajiv Gandhi’s contribution. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad also hit out at Kamal Nath, calling him an “electoral Hindu”. “These days, electoral Hindus are roaming in Madhya Pradesh. Some have become Hanuman devotees, some talk about the Hindu religion. The question is whether you are a Hindu or not,” Prasad said, asking if Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Kamal Nath had ever visited Ayodhya.

Countering BJP’s Hindutva

Meanwhile, the Congress led by former Chief Minister and PCC chief Kamal Nath has resorted to an astute, though controversial, strategy to counter BJP’s Hindutva agenda.

Nath has unabashedly embraced his version of Hindutva by hosting preachers like Dhirendra Shastri and Pradeep Mishra in his pocket borough of Chhindwara over the last few months. Both back the idea of Hindu Rashtra but their styles differ. Incidentally, the PCC chief himself suggested in a media interaction that the country was already a Hindu Rashtra in the sense that a vast majority of the population follows Hinduism. The former chief minister has often reacted to the charge of “pedalling soft Hindutva” by asking, “Kya BJP ne Hindutva ka theka le rakha hai? (Can only the BJP practise Hindutva?)”

The Congress’ chief ministerial candidate proudly projects himself as a Hanuman Bhakt (a devotee of Lord Hanuman) and has built a 101-foot statue of the deity in Chhindwara. Though his strategy to match the BJP in liberally flaunting religious symbolism hasn’t gone down well among a section in the Congress, it has proved effective in blunting the opponent’s edge on Hindutva. He has tactfully ensured that the BJP’s oft-repeated claim about the Congress being anti-Hindu sounded absurd in Madhya Pradesh.