By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22 will also mark the beginning of BJP’s campaign for Lok Sabah General Election 2024. Religious events, including fetching large number of Hindu devotees to Ayodhya Ramlala Darshan free of cost for the next two months, will be organized as a special feature of this year’s election campaign outside the purview of the Election Commission of India in which large number of RSS-BJP-VHP activists under the garb of Sadhus overtly and covertly will do the work of BJP and PM Narendra Modi who will be seeking for their third term. However, the ultimate political impact will be uncertain, because after showing initial panic, the opposition seems to be firmly opposed the design, as the four Shankaracharyas declared the consecration violation of shastras of Sanatan Dharma.
Opposition is bent upon to expose RSS-BJP clans political design and as political parties many of them will not be participation the consecration ceremony as the four Shankaracharyas and may apolitical Hindu saints along with the four Shankaracharyas. It is another matter that many of the political leaders of various opposition parties will be seen visiting Ayodhya, since religion is person matter, and no opposition party is imposing on their any individual leader or activist not to observe religious events on January 22.
Many opposition political parties have planned to organize their own religious events in their states or areas to mark the occasion only to frustrate the RSS-BJP’s design to label them as anti-Hindu. Such as, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee would be leading a religious event in Kali Mandir at Kolkata, and AAP leaders would be organizing Sunderkand paths in Delhi. Many interpret these events as panic reactions on anticipation of political damage that BJP’s Ram Temple politics may inflict them in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Nevertheless, the country will soon be witnessing two sets of religious congregations throughout the country before and during general election campaigns. Vishwa Hindu Parishad has already trained hundreds of RSS-BJP activists to impersonate themselves as Hindu Sadhus and do the political work under the garb.
Many of the RSS-BJP activists have been deployed as Kathavachakas, who visit throughout the country emotionally and politically targeting their audience during their Ramkatha or Krishnakathayagyas. It has been seen in the past during Vishva Hindu Parishad’s campaigns, and many such events will be organized in the near future.
They have also deployed mobile vehicles with Hindu deities that go from one place to the other in the name of religious teaching to the common masses. However, what they do is to prepare them for a Hindu Rashtra.
During their every religious congregation they talk about Hindu Rashtra, and to support them who are working for this ultimate aim. All their efforts, even when they do anything in any other field such as education, are targeted towards achieving their end. Ekal Prayas is one of them, and in 2019 election, it was reported in the media, how their teachers helped BJP candidates in Assam.
Several wings of RSS, has trained thousands of volunteers directly in over one lakh villages of the country and indirectly influencing about 4 lakh villages, through their education, rural and agriculture training, and several other social programmes.
January 22 would be the occasion when through lakhs of religious events, RSS-BJP activists would be activating all their wings and associates and put them in the election work in favour of establishing Hindu Rashtra under PM Narendra Modi.
Given the huge RSS-BJP network across the country, not only the BJP but also several political analysts have already declared that it is a sure win for Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha election 2024.
The certainly with which they talk is just misplaced. There cannot be pan-India political impact of Ram Temple inauguration, since Ram is not the most popular deity across the country. Hindus have many popular deities, and there are many sects, who would not like to overshadow their own deity by Ram, even if Prime Minister inaugurates it.
Perhaps, even PM Modi knows it, that is why he recently organized Tamil Sangam in Varanasi, the abode of Shiva, just only to link shaivaites of southern India. He has been seen travelling to South Indian religious places dedicated to other deities. Ram Temple politics has almost no political impact on South India.
From West Bengal to north east, the popular deities are Kali, Durga, Kamakhya and other female deities, worshiped as supreme deities of Hindus. In old Darbhanga, that is Mithila, the ‘dvar banga’ Shiva is the chief deity, and they grudge that their daughter Sita, was not well treated by Rama in Ayodhya. There is no great political impact of Rama in that region.
Lord Krishna is popular in Odisha, and Navin Patnaik is seen busy in organizing events for Jagannath puri corridor even currently when Ram Temple consecration ceremony is being held at Ayodhya.
Ram could be politically impact in Jharkhand and certain part of Bihar, central Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. Krishna is popular deity in Mathura and surrounding. In the upper reaches of the Himalayas, Shiva and Shakti are chief deities. Haryana has two popular deities named shyam – the one Mathura-Vrindavan Wale and the other Khatu wale. Maharashtra has their own Ganpati Bappa.
It should therefore be noted that RSS-BJP clan has limited power to impose Ram on everyone else in the Hindu pantheon. Therefore, the real issue is not Ram Temple, but the RSS-BJP-VHP network that needs to be taken on seriously by the opposition political parties. They must not panic, and they must expose how RSS-BJP-VHP activists under the garb of Sadhus (bhagvadharis) are trying to cleverly drive electorates to vote for BJP. (IPA Service)
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