BJP's rise to prominence riding on Ram Janmabhoomi issue

News Network
November 9, 2019

New Delhi, Nov 9: The Supreme Court verdict paving the way for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya has brought to the fore the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi movement which propelled the BJP from the fringes of national politics to becoming a dominant political force as it used the deeply emotive issue to mobilise Hindus.

Struggling to find a space in the country's politics dominated by secular parties, the BJP under L K Advani hitched its bandwagon to the temple cause in its Palampur resolution in 1989, giving a defining Hindutva edge to its politics which until then had lacked a popular cause celebre.

The issue combined with its alliance with anti-Congress parties in 1989 won the BJP 85 seats in Lok Sabha elections against a mere two in 1984.

It came to the party's rescue again in 1990 when caste politics, fuelled by the then VP Singh government's decision to adopt the Mandal Commission report on the reservation, began to dominate Indian politics.

Advani launched his famous 'Rath Yatra' from Somnath temple in Gujarat, drawing people in their thousands as his chariot rolled through the country's heartland, at times triggering communal riots as well, while the movement gained momentum.

The demolition of Babri Masjid at the disputed site on December 6, 1992, made the party a pariah in politics for a while but could not stop its rise to power.

Speaking of the movement's role in the BJP's rise, Manindra Nath Thakur, an associate professor at the Centre for Political Studies of JNU, told PTI, "It played a very important role. It gave a symbol to the BJP to fight elections as it did not have a proper symbol earlier, as the Congress had in the legacy of freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi was also a great symbol for Congress."

The issue gave the BJP "the symbol of Lord Ram" which it converted "into an aggressive plank in organising the Hindu majoritarian politics", he said.

Incidentally, it was the decision to put the issue of temple construction and other core contentious matters like the Uniform Civil Code on the back burner in the late 1990s in its quest to win allies to form government at the Centre that halted the BJP's political rise before the Congress ousted it from power in 2004.

It took the BJP a full decade to capture the power again after Narendra Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, combined his aggressive Hindutva image with development plank and catapulted the party to its maiden majority in Lok Sabha in 2014 and then bettering the show in 2019.

With the apex court verdict likely to put a closure to decades-old dispute, Arun Anand, a prolific commentator and author of two books on the RSS, said the demand of a Ram temple in Ayodhya is "unarguably the longest movement in the history of any civilization".

"The mass movement that started in 1983 not only brought greater awareness about the identity of the nation but also made a huge impact in all spheres of national life. It has created a consensus on the legitimacy of the demand to construct a Ram Temple at Lord Rama's birthplace," he said.

Hindus had begun agitating to reclaim the land from 1528 before a mass movement restarted in 1983-84, he said, adding that the community fought many battles and sacrificed lives.

It will be curious to see as to what turn the BJP's Hindutva politics takes following the verdict, according to political watchers.

Thakur cautioned that if the party now takes up the issues of other disputed holy sites like the ones in Mathura and Varanasi, then it will be "dangerous" for politics.

However, if the judgement leads to the issue's resolution for good and the party moving on to matters like the economy, then things may settle.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 13,2020

New Delhi, Jan 13: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the city police, Delhi government, WhatsApp Inc, Google Inc and Apple Inc on a plea of three JNU professors to preserve data, CCTV footage and other evidence relating to the January 5 violence on the varsity campus.

The Delhi Police informed the court that it has asked the JNU administration to preserve and hand over CCTV footage of the violence.

Justice Brijesh Sethi listed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

The court was told by Delhi government Standing Counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra that the police has not yet received any response from the university administration.

The counsel said police has also written to WhatsApp to preserve data of two groups "Unity Against Left" and "Friends of RSS" including messages, pictures and videos and phone numbers of members, related to JNU violence incident.

The petition was filed by JNU professors Ameet Parameswaran, Atul Sood and Shukla Vinayak Sawant seeking necessary directions to the Delhi Police Commissioner and Delhi government.

The petition also sought direction to the Delhi Police to retrieve all CCTV footage of JNU campus.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
June 14,2020

Kashmir, Jun 14: An Army personnel was killed and two others were injured as Pakistani troops opened fire and shelled areas along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Sunday.

This is the third fatality in the Pakistani firing and shelling on forward posts and villages in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri this month.

The officials said the latest firing and shelling from across the border took place in Shahpur-Kerni sector on Saturday night, drawing strong retaliation by the Indian Army.

Three Indian Army personnel were injured in the Pakistani firing and were immediately evacuated to hospital, where one of them succumbed to injuries, the officials said.

They said the casualties suffered by the Pakistani Army in the retaliatory action were not known immediately.

On June 4, havaldar P Mathiazhagan fell to Pakistani firing in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district, while on June 10, Naik Gurcharan Singh lost his life in a similar incident in Rajouri sector.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
January 25,2020

Jammu, Jan 25: People in Jammu and Kashmir expressed happiness over the restoration of mobile data services and internet access through fixed-line across the Union Territory on Saturday.

Speaking to ANI Jitendra Sharma, a resident of Jammu said, "The government has taken a good decision. People had been facing hardship for a long period and I think it will improve further."

"It is a big relief to people. People can finish their pending work. I hope that 4G services will also be resumed soon," said a resident of Kashmir.

The internet speed is restricted to 2G only.

"Access shall be limited only to whitelisted sites and not to any social media applications allowing peer to peer communication and virtual private network applications. Directions shall be effective from January 25 and will remain in force till January 31," the statement by the government read.

Earlier on January 15, 2G services were reinstated in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, and Udhampur for white-listed sites.

The Central government had suspended the internet in the region following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 last year, which conferred special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.