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.

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News Network
April 2,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 2: With the coronavirus lockdown in place, liquor would be delivered home by state-run retail outlets in Kerala after the left government has decided to issue special passes to tipplers, who exhibit withdrawal symptoms and have doctors prescription.

Protesting the government decision, the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) wore black badges on Wednesday, but attended duty and seeking immediate withdrawal of the order, saying it was "anti-people".

As per guidelines issued by the Kerala State Beverages Corporation managing director G Sparjan Kumar, for the supply of liquor, a service charge of Rs 100 would be collected from each pass holder for meeting the delivery expenses.

Each person would be entitled to 3 litres of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and sale of wine and beer was not envisaged, the order stated.

Those not willing to undertake the home delivery, the name and details of the employee should be reported to the Head office for submission to the government, it said.

A civil police officer will have to accompany the distribution vehicle.

The sale of liquor should be only to the pass holders, limiting it to the quantity mentioned in the pass.

Any excess sale to pass holders or sales to non-pass holders is strictly prohibited, the order said.

In the order issued on Monday, the government said, following the lockdown and the closure of liquor outlets in the state, there were many instances of social issues, including suicidal tendencies shown by those who consumed liquor regularly and the state government has decided to initiate steps to resolve the matter.

Speaking to reporters, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said his government has not forced anyone to prescribe liquor to addicts.

He was responding to a query on the indifference of doctors towards the matter of prescribing liquor to addicts.

"If the doctors are not ready to prescribe liquor, it's fine. We are not forcing anyone to do so. We were just following the protocol which are prevalent at many places. It's been over a week. The family and friends of the addicts can gently persuade them to approach the de-addiction centres," he said.

Sparjan Kumar said the order on home delivery was just a modality, as part of the earlier order issued by the government to provide liquor under prescription.

"We have worked out a modality. We have a meeting tomorrow. Some new order has been issued by the Centre today. The meeting will discuss the implementation of the orders," Kumar told.

A person showing withdrawal symptoms has to get a doctor's prescription on his condition so that he could be provided liquor in a "controlled manner", the order added.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also come out against the government's move.

Meanwhile, Vimukthi, an anti-narcotics campaign launched by the state government, has till now admitted 64 patients since March 24.

"Since March 24, the day lockdown started, we have 64 patients admitted due to withdrawal symptoms. We have also registered at least 200 out patients at various de-addiction centres across Kerala," K Mohammed Resheed, Joint Excise Commissioner in charge of awareness told.

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Agencies
March 8,2020

Mumbai, Mar 8: A day after the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor and raided his premises, he was taken to the agency's office in Mumbai on Saturday for further questioning.

Kapoor, who was grilled by central agency's officials on Friday night at his Samudra Mahal residence in Mumbai, was shifted to the ED office in the metropolis around 12.30 pm.

ED officials said Kapoor was questioned throughout the night, with some rest time.

A senior ED official connected with the probe told IANS: "Kapoor will be questioned about Yes Bank loans to Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL)."

The official said that during searches a lot of incriminating documents were found and the agency wanted to grill him on his links with DHFL promoters and other companies.

Kapoor's alleged role in the disbursal of loan to a corporate entity and kickbacks reportedly received in his wife's bank account are also under probe.

The ED had filed the money laundering case against Kapoor and raided his residence, apart from issuing a look-out circular so that he does not flee the country.

The ED registered a money laundering case against Kapoor as a continuation of its probe against the DHFL wherein it was allegedly found that Rs 12,500 crore was diverted to 80 shell companies using one lakh fake borrowers. The transactions with these shell companies date back to 2015.

An ED official in New Delhi told IANS that the DHFL probe revealed that funds diverted by the DHFL originated from Yes Bank.

He said that the searches at Kapoor's residence on Friday night were meant to find out any irregularity in grant of loans to the DHFL by the Yes Bank.

The ED has accused Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of DHFL of purchasing shares in five firms -- Faith Realtors, Marvel Township, Abe Realty, Poseidon Realty, and Random Realtors -- after which they were amalgamated with Sunblink.

The outstanding loans of these five firms, totalling around Rs 2,186 crore till July 2019, were allegedly appropriated onto the books of Sunblink to cover up the diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

The ED's action comes after the RBI superseded Yes Bank Board for 30 days and appointed an administrator, putting a cap of Rs 50,000 on withdrawals by account holders for a month.

The RBI said that the bank's board was superseded "owing to serious deterioration in the financial position of the bank".

Former SBI CFO Prashant Kumar was appointed as administrator of Yes Bank, which has over 1,000 branches and 1,800-plus ATMs across the country.

On Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the bank was on watch since 2017 and developments relating to it were monitored on a day-to-day basis.

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News Network
March 18,2020

New Delhi, Mar 18: As many as 276 Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, including 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE and five in Italy, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the total number of Indians infected by coronavirus is 276 — 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE, five in Italy, and one each in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

A fourth batch of 53 Indians returned to India from Iran on Monday, taking the total number of people evacuated from the coronavirus-hit country to 389.

Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has been working to bring back Indians stranded there. Over 700 people have died from the disease in Iran and nearly 14,000 cases detected.

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