The Ayodhya Ram Mandir and the Modi-Shah double-engine juggernaut are far more than mere electoral trump cards of the BJP
Sunjoy Hans
It was over 33 years ago when the Bharatiya Janata Party firmly attached itself to the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi movement and started its journey from the periphery of India’s political landscape towards its centre stage. Now, exactly three decades after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and three years since the Supreme Court’s much-awaited, widely hailed verdict in favour of a Ram temple in the Uttar Pradesh city, the BJP – by far the dominant ruling political power of the country – is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the temple’s construction remains on pace for completion by 2024, the year of the all-important general elections.
Just as the success of the Gujarat model of development became one of the main planks on which the BJP fought and won the 2014 general elections, some political pundits say, the grand new Ram Mandir – likely to be the largest Hindu temple in the world – will serve as a formidable monument to the saffron party’s fulfilled electoral promises and its concern for public sentiments, while a revamped Ayodhya will symbolise its commitment to development.
Engineers on site confirm that more than 40 percent of the Ram Mandir construction work is already complete. Jagdish, one of the supervising chief engineers employed by the Ram Janmabhoomi trust, said: “Work is progressing fast. We have simultaneously started construction of the actual temple from the ‘Garbha Griha’ or the sanctum sanctorum area. Pink sandstone from Rajasthan is being used for the temple walls.”
Given that the construction started just after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended its ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ (foundation stone laying ceremony) in August 2020, the 2024 target is well within sight. As for Ayodhya, the holy city is expected to see markets and businesses flourish around the hallowed premises of the new temple, which in turn will not only generate a lot of jobs and but also new means of employment.
The way the Ram Mandir and its surrounding areas are being developed, with strict adherence to a well-planned road map, the local people seem already convinced of reaping the benefits of the international recognition that Ayodhya is poised to boast with world-class infrastructure in the not-too-distant future.
“Our shops have been removed as the roads are being widened, but work is on to allot us shops in other locations, which will benefit us a lot,” a trader said.
The BJP government’s target is to make Ayodhya one of the most preferred tourist destinations in India, with everything to attract not only domestic but also international tourists in large numbers – from a state-of-the-art railway station that will be an imitation of the Ram Mandir, to an international airport equipped with modern amenities.
The ancient city will also see considerable expansion in the form of ‘Navya Ayodhya’ (new Ayodhya), a 1500-acre Vastu-friendly Vedic township that will be home to guest houses of about 24 Indian states and five countries, including Korea, monasteries, and more than 100 plots for different sects, communities, and volunteer organisations.
Another major attraction will be a ‘Ramayana Museum and Cultural Centre’. Proposed to be established on 10 acres of land at Ramasnehi Ghat between Ayodhya and Lucknow, this world-class museum will offer visitors a comprehensive ‘darshan’ of the life and times of Lord Rama. The Yogi Adityanath-led UP government has also announced the installation of a 200-feet high statue of Lord Rama on the banks of the Saryu River in Ayodhya.
As per a conservative estimate of the tourism department, based on a statistical analysis, Ayodhya will see a 300 percent increase in the tourist footfall over the next decade, what with 6.8 crore of people estimated to visit Ram’s birthplace by 2030. While these are all long-term estimates, the Ram Mandir trust is expecting the temple to be ready to receive pilgrims by as early as December 2023.
While Ayodhya Ram Mandir is widely believed to be the pivot of BJP’s 2024 campaign, the party is also laying the groundwork to win over the people of electorally crucial UP again via the infrastructure development route. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently made some major announcements on that front.
“It gives me immense pleasure to state that under the UDAN scheme, we have allotted 63 new routes to the state of Uttar Pradesh and in future we will increase it to 108, so that civil aviation can reach every corner of Uttar Pradesh. We have also marked 18 airports in Uttar Pradesh under the UDAN scheme which will require an investment of Rs 1,121 crore for infrastructure development. Uttar Pradesh will have five international airports which itself will be a landmark in the country,” Scindia said from the national capital after inaugurating direct flights between Lucknow and Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Goa by Air Asia.
But these are just a couple of the countless measures that the BJP government is taking proactively not just to retain power in 2024 but also to build a better India and secure its people’s future. And that is happening thanks in no small measure to two people in particular – Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah – who are clearly still the twin pillars of the party’s leadership.
The August 18 reshuffle in the BJP Parliamentary Board, the party’s highest decision-making body, which saw the surprising exclusion of Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari and non-inclusion of UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the not-so-surprising inclusion of Modi and Shah, clearly indicated that the party was finetuning its strategy for the 2024 elections at a time when most other parties, not least the Indian National Congress, had barely even begun framing theirs.
Even though Shah is no longer the party president, he remains its de facto chief election strategist. Whether it be Jammu and Kashmir or Karnataka, it is Shah who takes stock of political and organisational issues facing the BJP’s state units. This is a role that Shah often plays so discreetly that many people do not quite fully realise how integral he has been to the party’s success.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is also one of the most powerful leaders of the BJP, recently hailed Shah as a “backstage hero” who does not seek credit for all that he does for his party.
“He talks less, but when he talks, he does so meaningfully,” Singh said when releasing the book Shabdansh, a collection of Shah’s speeches on a variety of issues, in New Delhi.
However, Shah has been a rather inspirational leader in his capacity as the nation’s Home Minister. This has been most evident in Jammu and Kashmir.
Until August 5, 2019, when the Centre scrapped J&K’s so-called special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories, politicians never openly acknowledged the courage and sacrifices of the nation’s security personnel who became martyrs fighting militants to keep the Indian tricolour flying high in the terrorism-ravaged state.
It was Shah who changed this narrative. He visited the homes of the martyred J&K police jawans and officers during each and every visit he made to the UT and assured their families of his support.
His gesture not only boosted the morale of security forces fighting terrorism in the Himalayan state and evoked a spirit of nationalism among the local people, but also sent a clear message to all bloodthirsty separatist militants in J&K and their bosses in Pakistan that New Delhi deeply valued the sacrifices of its martyrs and stood firmly behind their families.
Shah’s influence was evident most recently during India’s 76th Independence Day celebrations, when the J&K administration led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha announced the renaming of 199 schools, colleges and roads after martyred heroes in uniform and other eminent personalities as a homage to their invaluable contributions towards the security and development of J&K.
The most consequential outcome of this – not to mention the free hand that Shah gave security forces in J&K to tackle terrorists – has been a drastic reduction in militancy across the Valley over the past three years. As people from reputed hotbeds of terrorism, such as Tral, Shopian and Pulwama in South Kashmir, hoisted the Indian flag and raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ during the Independence Day functions this year, it became clear that terrorism was on its last legs in J&K.
Shah’s recent decision to make forensic probe compulsory for cases attracting a punishment of more than six years in jail is yet another landmark step, which will not only go a long way in making criminal probes more effective and improving conviction rates, but also generate considerable employment opportunities for forensic science graduates in the country.
While addressing the graduating students of the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in Gandhinagar at its maiden convocation, the Union Home Minister announced that the government is working towards setting up a forensic mobile investigation facility in every district of the country so that there is a legal structure to ensure independent and impartial investigation.
Shah also revealed the Modi government would make much-needed and long-overdue changes in the outdated Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Evidence Act, reasoning that “nobody saw these laws from an Indian perspective after independence”.
The Modi government’s constantly evolving approach to making India a safer country was also seen at the National Security Strategies (NSS) conference held on August 18-19, in which Shah urged all Director Generals of Police (DGPs) to pay special attention to whether demographic changes were taking place in their states, especially in the border districts, and ensure that all the information of technical and strategic importance be shared at the ground level in such areas.
Noting that that Prime Minister Modi gave top priority to internal security and the Central government under his leadership has made new laws and maximised the use of technology to work in close coordination with all states, the Union Home Minister said the entire government machinery must work towards taking the National Automatic Fingerprint Identification system to the ground level.
Being the right-hand of Modi since his chief ministerial days in Gujarat, Shah remains unparalleled in articulating the Prime Minister’s intentions, vision, actions and successes for India effectively to the rest of the nation. This automatically serves as the ultimate report card for the BJP to have an edge over other parties during election time and maintain its popularity at other times.
As for nation-building, Prime Minister Modi himself keeps constantly – and tireless – at it. Whether it be through initiatives such as the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’, or his recent “Khadi for Nation, Khadi for Fashion” mantra where he urged his countrymen to take pride in their heritage by promoting and using khadi on an everyday basis, or his regular “Mann ki Baat” radio programme in which the Prime Minister addresses various issues pertaining to health, environment, education and women’s empowerment, to name a few, often drawing from ideas and suggestions sent by the public.
Since August 15 this year, Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly pledged to make India a developed country by 2047 – the year when the nation will celebrate its centennial anniversary of independence.
Considering all that the Modi government has done since coming to power eight years ago, the idea of India becoming a developed country, no longer appears to be a distant, impossible dream. But this dream cannot be realised unless the Indian people truly believe in it and work towards it in a persistent, positive and concerted manner regardless of setbacks – just like they did during the freedom struggle movement.
What Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Shah have essentially been trying so hard to do is to make sure that a similar national movement takes India forward to a better future and a much-enhanced position on the global stage. The duo has been succeeding at it so far because people – as a rule – like and follow leaders who are sincere, relatable and have a vision they can aspire to.
The new Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will not merely be an electoral trump card for the BJP; it will serve as a constant reminder of India’s great past and as a veritable herald of its great future.
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