VHP statement on Ram Mandir: RSS, Modi govt depending on polarisation once again?

MANDIR WAHIN BANAYENGE! The slogan that led to the demolition of Babri mosque on December 2, 1992 will soon rent the air of the country again. Two serious developments within the span of less than a week confirm doubts that the Sangh parivar is all set to gear-up its Ram temple construction plan sooner than later. First, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat announced at Haridwar last week that the country is ready for the Ram temple at its site in Ayodhya. He asked the ‘sant samaj’ to come forward to fulfil this mission. Now the sant samaj at a meeting held at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad premises in Delhi announced on Friday, October 5 that they would “not wait indefinitely for the court decision” to construct Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad Sant Samiti has not issued a statement on Friday, instead it has issued a warning with an action plan that is clearly aimed at starting temple construction in Ayodhya. We all know that Ram temple is more a political issue than a religious one for the RSS. The timing of the Sant samiti warning itself speaks for its political intent. Its less than a year to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and not even three months to three crucial assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. There are clear indications that the BJP is on a loosing wicket right now as far as elections are concerned.

Frankly, nothing is going in right direction both for the BJP and its leader Narendra Modi. Economy is in a bad shape. Declining rupee, petrol price hike, mounting budgetary deficit, angry farmers, restless youth and Rafale scam are good enough symptoms for any ruling party to understand that winning elections is a tall order in these circumstances. The BJP and its guardian Sangh understand the ground reality too well. But it also understands that the next round of assembly polls coupled with the 2109 elections are a sink or swim battle for them. The Sangh dream of a Hindu rashtra rests on Modi’s return to power in 2019.

It’s a turf where Narendra Modi is always comfortable. Look at his Gujarat background and you will find that Modi was virtually a political nobody till 2002 Gujrat riots took place. It was the Gujarat riots that turned him into a Hindu hirday samart or the majority community leader. He turned into a leader in his own right exploiting the us versus them tactics in Gujarat. Narendra Modi have never looked back since. Why would he shy now to use the same tactics to return to power in 2019!

The VHP Sant Samiti’s job is to prepare the ground for Modi to take over very much like what the VHP did in early 1990s for LK Advani. Advani in 1990s played the political role for the rise of the BJP then on the Hindu majoritarian sentiments that were built up by the VHP under the RSS supervision. The Sangh is going to recreate the same atmospherics that was built between 1991-92. This time round, the show will be on a much mega scale to pave the way for Modi to return to power in 2019.

How far it works, only time will tell. But the Sangh and the BJP are ready to push India to communal polarisation of a scale that the independent India may not have seen so far. The purpose is to let the majority forget the Modi government misdeeds and vote for the BJP once again. So, the country, especially the Hindi belt where the BJP is the weakest now, will be drowned into slogans like mandir vahin banaey gay as the pitch for the Ram temple movement 2 gathers momentum.