India's BJP set to 'whip up' Hindu nationalist sentiment with Ayodhya temple campaign

Braving thick fog, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ayodhya over the weekend to launch an airport, train services and roads, giving a US$1.8 billion boost to the ancient city in northern Uttar Pradesh before the January 22 inauguration of a Ram temple at a disputed site.

Modi's visit in the face of bad weather - which disrupted traffic across north India, with hundreds of flights and dozens of trains delayed, and several deaths in road traffic accidents - symbolised his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's determination to fulfil a key pledge to the country's majority Hindu population ahead of crucial national elections in April and May.

The campaign to build a temple to Lord Ram, the deity also known as Rama who devotees believe was born in Ayodhya, has been at the centre of a three-decade campaign by the BJP. In 1992, Hindu mobs razed a mosque at a site in the city where they say a temple had earlier existed.

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Nearly 2,000 people were killed in the nationwide riots that followed, mostly Muslims. After years of legal wrangling, the Supreme Court in 2019 allowed the Hindu community to build a temple at the disputed site and allocated a separate plot for rebuilding the mosque.

"There was a time when, in this very Ayodhya, Lord Ram was kept inside a tent. Today, a permanent house has been built for not only Lord Ram but also for 40 million [shelterless] Indians," Modi told a packed gathering at the weekend, many people waving flags emblazoned with Ram's image.

The prime minister's reference to permanent homes relates to concrete ones built for the poor, highlighting his government's development work.

Modi urged Indians to light up their houses during the temple's inauguration, in the same way Hindus celebrate Diwali, the annual festival of lights, which markd Ram's return from exile to his Ayodhya home after defeating his evil adversary Ravan.

The prime minister will soon lead a consecration ceremony for a Ram sculpture at the temple, with opposition leaders invited.

Some observers believe the ceremony will strengthen Hindu nationalism. The BJP "will use the occasion to whip up religious and cultural sentiment", said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist and commentator focusing on Hindu nationalism.

Thanks to a series of BJP initiatives and online posts, Mukhopadhyay said, the religious narrative is likely to swirl until the Ram Navami festival in April, which marks Ram's birth.

That is also likely to serve as a starting point for widening a campaign to establish temples at other disputed sites, he added.

Last month the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh gave the go ahead for a survey of a mosque near a temple called Krishna Janmabhoomi - said to be the birthplace of the god Krishna - in the city of Mathura after petitioners claimed the Muslim place of worship showed signs of Hindu religion.

Mukhopadhyay said it was "a matter of time" before mosque sites in Varanasi and Mathura - key Hindu pilgrimage cities - give way to temples. The BJP "will time it to suit them most politically", he said.

Opposition leaders appear divided over how to respond to the BJP's religious slant, especially following its recent wins in three state elections - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan - which account for most voters in the party's heartland northern and central areas.

West Bengal state chief minister Mamata Banerjee, leader of regional party the Trinamool Congress, indicated she will skip this month's Ram ceremony, while Samajwadi party leader Akhilesh Yadav, influential in Uttar Pradesh, responded vaguely, saying he will visit the temple "whenever god wants him to".

India's main opposition Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi, whose months-long Unite India march from September 2022 helped his party win a state election in southern Karnataka in May, is planning a similar march called Bharat Nyay (Justice) this month.

It is set start in the northeastern state of Manipur, which was besieged by communal riots last year. According to government figures, as of September 15, 175 people are known to have died in the violence, with more than 1,100 injured.

The march is expected to go through several states, including Uttar Pradesh.

"The opposition has never been able to have a consistent response to the Hindu nationalist programme of the BJP," said Mukhopadhyay, adding that "the moment you take a soft line ... you are taking the position of a B-team", which "can never win".

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance - commonly known as INDIA - is an opposition coalition that was strung together last year in an attempt to halt the BJP juggernaut. However, it has not arrived at a seat-sharing arrangement to field a common candidate against the BJP that avoids undercutting each constituent party's votes.

Nor has the group been able to decide on who would be able take on the hugely popular Modi, amid infighting and a lack of ideas, Mukhopadhyay said.

Meanwhile, enthusiasm for the temple and its associated projects seems strong in Ayodhya.

"The roads were so bad that it would take us six hours to reach Lucknow [the state capital], but now we are able to do the same distance in a couple of hours because of a new road," said Prabhakar Pandey, a 64-year-old lawyer in Ayodhya.

The city's youth hope an influx of visitors will bring employment.

"I am a college graduate and have completed a postgraduate vocational programme, but jobs are few and far between. But now I think there will be new jobs," said 23-year-old Dharmendra Kumar, who wants to be a train driver.

Modi has also called for a cleanliness drive at pilgrimage centres across India from mid-January to coincide with the spiritual festival Makar Sankranti.

Praveen Rai, a political analyst at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, said most ancient temples in India "have been in bad shape. The BJP has played on this smartly by appealing to people's pride".

The temple movement will push local development and highlight Hinduism ahead of elections, he said.

Rai added that religious fervour was unlikely to overshadow the BJP's governance ahead of this year's elections, as voters are often swayed by good leadership.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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