Navigating the fault line of Ram Mandir politics

The self-appointed guardians of secularism and those who claim to be protectors of Hindutva nationalism have fed off each other for decades

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It was we Shiv Sainiks who brought down the Babri Masjid in just 17 minutes, the BJP just ran away. Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is our creation." member of Parliament and Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said at a recent press conference. To reflect upon just how far Indian politics has travelled between December 1992 and January 2024, Raut's strident remarks are instructive. In 1992, the Shiv Sena was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s staunch ally; now its Uddhav Thackeray wing is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra that includes the Congress. At least Raut and Sena have taken a consistent stand. Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray boasted in 1992 that "our boys did it" while seeking credit for the demolition. Paradoxically, it is the so-called secular parties whose political ambivalence and unethical compromises that have led to the ideological capitulation of the Nehruvian secular order before the relentless march of the saffron brotherhood.

The Congress, in particular, seems unable to articulate a coherent response to the Modi government's determined approach to take full electoral advantage of the Ram temple inauguration in a general election year.

When the party's overseas Congress chief, Sam Pitroda, raised a pertinent question last month - "Is Ram Mandir the real issue or is it unemployment or inflation?"- the Congress instantly distanced itself from the remarks, dismissing them as a personal view. But now by declining the invite to attend the Mandir pran pratishta ceremony and labelling it a "BJP-RSS event", the party seems keen to reaffirm its secular credentials.