The pran pratishta or consecration of Lord Ram’s statue in the newly built Ram temple on 22 January by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the incredible climax of historical mass movement in Ayodhya. It tells us that the Nehruvian project to keep the State separate from religion in the public sphere is in its last phase.
When Babri Masjid was demolished on 6 December 1992, very few would have imagined that such a massive temple complex would be built in one’s lifetime.
The building of the temple by Sangh associates, Modi’s clear identification with the temple inauguration, and people’s overwhelming support—these are harsh political defeats of the Congress’s power-politics against Modi and the Sangh Parivar.
It takes us to the beginning of the Congress versus Modi battle of 2002-2024.
In 2002, the Congress party, led by its then-president Sonia Gandhi and run by Ahmed Patel and other stalwarts, had initiated the strong political fight against then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who was emerging fast as the most promising leader of the BJP.
Now, in retrospect, we understand better how significant that turning point was in India’s political history.
Congress challenged Modi on his turf, taking up what we loosely call in New Delhi “secular versus communal” fight.
The 2002 Gujarat assembly election was the first statewide polls where the Sangh Parivar’s top leaders weren’t reluctant to talk overtly about Hindutva ideology.
The Godhra carnage had given them an excuse.
When Modi was a fresh entrant arranging his political chess board in retaining political power through 2002 electoral politics, he spoke emphatically against “vikrut binsampradayikta” (vulgar secularism) in election campaigns. He wasn’t shy in taking to the next level the issues of Hindutva ideology where LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee didn’t dare to venture. In that election, he launched a new trend of political messaging and political symbolism that was hard to beat in electoral politics.
In a short interview given to me during the campaign trail in December 2002, Modi spoke about his poll plank of fighting terrorism. “I am raising the issue of people’s security. I am not talking about terrorism. Last night in Asarva constituency I told the voters that if you have the best of the luxuries of life, but if your sons do not return home safely in the evening, what’s the use? People do understand my point.”
By taking Modi head-on, instead of any top RSS leader or a senior BJP leader, the Congress contributed in adding political heft of Modi that he needed at that time.
Modi didn’t lose an opportunity in dubbing the Congress as his and his party’s prime opponent.
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Congress’ big fight
Congress took up the big fight, tried their best to drag CM Modi into the criminal cases of “fake encounters”, used the CBI and the government machinery to pursue the cases, fought tooth and nail in the Supreme Court against Modi’s state policy matters in conducting law and order taking advice of legal luminaries like P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
But, Congress’s top-down-approach in its ideology-based political fight against Modi and the Sangh Parivar proved fatal for the party’s future.
Then, Congress handled Delhi-based media shrewdly, but it never learnt to “read” Modi correctly for the next twenty years.
In 2002, Modi, while keeping track of the Delhi mainstream media, had told me, “I think we are fighting the Congress party only in the media. On the ground I don’t see any battle. We remain unchallenged.”
In post-2002 Gujarat, Modi’s fundamental appeal was about the family’s security. In India, the family and its security is the centerpoint of everyone’s life. It created a new constituency. This approach has been working wonders in Uttar Pradesh.
In his first state election, Modi launched the “Hindutva-plus” BJP that won 127 seats out of 182. BJP leaders have been arguing since 2002 that Hindutva and development are two sides of the same coin (Hindutva hi vikas hai). Again, in the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, they would reiterate it
It’s striking that the Congress, which is having an incomparable historical legacy, has lost many political battles against CM Modi when it had absolute power in New Delhi (2004-2014), held huge resources, had thinking leaders with decades of experience, and people’s support that kept them in power for a decade.
However, Modi knew the “character” of his battle against the Congress much before he became the chief minister. In November 1990, eleven years before he joined power politics, Modi was state general secretary of the BJP.
Then, he gave an interview to Abhiyaan (a magazine founded and edited by me). The correspondent Vikram Vakil asked Modi, “Will Adavni’s rath yatra to build Ram temple give political advantage to the BJP?”
Modi replied, “Three things would happen through this rath yatra. 1) On the Ram Janambhoomi, the Ram temple will be built, definitely. 2) There are many people in the country who are deeply distressed because their wishes (to build a temple) haven’t been fulfilled. Once the Ram temple is built, its positive energy (sadshakti) will be activated. 3) Rath yatra would establish Advani ji’s leadership. BJP hasn’t planned the Ram temple movement for political gains. This is a jihad against vulgar secularism. We are ready to suffer political losses even if this jihad hurts the BJP.”
From late 80s onward, Modi has been strategising and executing the Ram Janmabhoomi andolan in Gujarat. As BJP’s organising general secretary, he silently but assertively led, launched and supervised many missions to send Ramshilas to Ayodhya and inspired large contingent of kar sevaks to go to Ayodhya. Under Modi’s supervision, Gujarat sent highest number of Ramshilas to Ayodhya in the early 90s.
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Taking ideology to the masses
Unlike the Congress, Modi took the RSS ideology to the people, in lanes and by-lanes of Gujarat, and came to Delhi after winning three elections.
Of course, both national parties have been talking of ideology for political gains. But the Congress got sucked into a vortex of the left-defined vision of the Hindu society and increasingly depended on an understanding of secularism that was defined by Western scholars. Congress party, since the early 1990s, had started ignoring the views of its powerful grassroot leaders.
The current wave of support for the Ram temple proves that Modi has been proven many shades better in grasping social sciences than the veteran leaders of Congress. Think again. Modi’s mandir politics has been a no-brainer as it’s based on understanding of the deep roots of religion in the Indian psyche and omnipresent God in daily public and private lives of people.
Indians are quintessentially believers of the composite culture but the genuine respect for plurality hasn’t overshadowed their deeply religious and emotional existence.
In the last one decade, Modi and Amit Shah have got much bigger success than they had envisaged on the ideological front. The Sangh Parivar has found more success than what it was striving for since the 1930s. Currently, the support for the Ram temple in many parts of India is much more and much deeper than even BJP’s expectations.
Like Modi, there are many Indian politicians in many regional parties who have understood that Indians are masterful in harbouring contradictory emotions within their communities.
They know well that many Hindu voters who are pro-Ram temple are certainly not “anti-Muslims” and there are many conservative devout muslims who are supporting the Ram temple construction, particularly after the Supreme court judgment.
The pran pratishtha event of 22 January is one of the biggest setbacks to Congress’s brand of “secular” politics. More so because Modi didn’t change the terms and conditions of his ideological fight to get the masses on his side.
Modi never remained static while fighting against Congress. PM Modi’s public persona has undergone major transformation if one compares it to CM Modi.
How can any opponent or the Congress put up a political fight against the prime minister of India who launches, currently, a Ram bhajan every day from a hashtag #ShriRamBhajan?
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India has changed
Modi’s personality cult will not dominate the political scene after a decade or so but it’s crystal clear that the Sangh Parivar’s mission to get people’s support for the religious causes won’t fade away.
Those who have reported on the 1986 opening of locks of Babri Masjid by the Rajiv Gandhi government to allow worship of Ram Lalla, Advani’s rath yatra, Ramshila movement to send bricks to build temple in Ayodhya, Chalo Ayodhya movement for kar seva, fateful demolition of Babri Masjid, the long torturous court battles, the Allahabad High Court judgment, and finally the Supreme Court’s verdict that awarded the land to Hindu litigants would understand how the Congress’s failure and Modi’s victory are historic. With the emergence of Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Western and left-leaning influences in Indian politics are being uprooted with vengeance.
Those who were supporting or opposing the Ram Janmbhoomi movement of the Sangh knew that the issue was not about 2.7 acres of land in Ayodhya. It carried social, historical, cultural, religious, legal, ethical, and political questions, too. Congress was expected to fight with conviction and determination on all these fronts. But, more than its supporters, its internal dynamics has failed Congress.
This energy-filled atmosphere prevailing in many parts of India in support of the Ram temple suggests that the Congress is, now, one generation behind in its fight against Modi and his party.
The hurt of Babri demolition will never go away and the Muslim community’s fight for better representation in Indian democracy will go on. The intellectual class, the secular-liberal thinkers, and many Indian minorities will robustly carry on their fight against the Sangh ideology in the coming decades, but the Congress will take a long time to remove the debris of its failed politics and reinject “pran” into its edifice.
Modi has scripted his own Ramayan of the Ram temple such that the 22 January event is likely to get more space in history books than the Lok Sabha election of 2024 because India has changed under Modi.
In the end, Modi himself has arrived at the cusp of making many more histories.
The inauguration of the magnificent Ram temple gives him an unimaginable civilisational opportunity to bridge the gap among many Indias.
Sheela Bhatt is a Delhi-based senior journalist. She tweets @sheela2010. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)