The start of January’s third week saw the nation engage in what Mikhail Bakhtin has described as ‘carnivalesque’. The Pran Pratistha ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya’s half constructed Ram Mandir was paradigmatic of the Bakhtin described de-stabilization or reversal of power structures, as happens in traditional forms of carnival.
However, the evident urgency of the consecration ceremony that could potentially seal a third term win for the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could also frame a bigger challenge for the opposition INDIA bloc now.
The challenge to the opposition in India only magnified from the 2019 Supreme Court decision to 2020 Bhoomi Pujan by PM Narendra Modi to the 2024 Pran Pratistha ceremony.
The 22 January ceremony could pave the way for a new chapter in national politics, when the Prime Minister of a constitutionally secular nation led India to celebrate Ram Lalla, while Muslims were beaten up in other parts of the country.
The Pran Pratistha ceremony saw a calmer Rashtriya SwayamSevak Sangh (RSS), while Mohan Bhagwat was seated right next to PM Modi during the ceremony. “Lord Ram has returned to Ayodhya after 500 years”: this remained the general fervor of the ceremony and of many who celebrated across the country.
The ceremony remained a resplendent message that there would be an unprecedented Hindutva surge amid statements of reconciliation from Sangh Parivar leaders who were once seen to occupy the “fringe” of mainstream Indian politics.
22 January saw a state holiday in UP, and also a half day for Central government employees – the state came across as having the kind of intimacy with religious rituals that it rarely had since independence.
Since Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, the Opposition INDIA bloc has only put forth a strong opposition to the Ram Mandir movement.
In 1989, the BJP had said, in its Palampur resolution, that not the courts but a negotiated settlement or legislation could solve the issue, the Opposition parties had left the matter to the judiciary.
With the judiciary handing the land to the Hindu side in 2019, the opposition seemed to have been caught in a dilemma.
From the Congress declining the invitation to attend the consecration to Samajwadi Party saying it would attend at a later date, from TMC’s inter-faith rally to AAP’s shobha yatras and community kitchens in the capital, each member of the Opposition is trying to figure its own way out.
The INDIA bloc, whose inability to maintain unity on regional fronts have now found themselves unable to agree on the Ayodhya Ram Mandir cause. Notably the BJP had hard lined their ideological stance around the Ram Mandir for over three decades, except when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power.
The consecration of the temple has been accompanied by a sense of resignation within the Muslim community with most of its leaders saying they want to move on.
Whether INDIA bloc can weather the Ram Mandir carnival with an even better devised artifice to counter the BJP master stroke will be one to see in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
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Published: 25 Jan 2024, 12:34 PM IST