India: BJP tactics of playing with religious sentiments part of election preparations in Uttar Pradesh

From: Asian Age, August 29, 2013

Poll-time devotion?

A tool to garner votes, publicity

by Rajesh Dixit

When the BJP appointed Amit Shah to oversee election preparations in Uttar Pradesh, it became clear that the saffron party would return to its old tactics of playing with religious sentiments. And the first thing Mr Shah did was to visit Ayodhya and commit his party to the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site. He is an accused in the post-Godhra violence and knows something about stoking communal feelings.
But Mr Shah and his master, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who aspires to be Prime Minister, forgot that the Uttar Pradesh administration is now in the able hands of the Samajwadi Party and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. The Samajwadi Party has an impeccable record of thwarting the designs of communal forces. When Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in pursuance of the pre-election communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar, recently sought to mobilise religious sentiments through the “84-kosi parikrama”, the Uttar Pradesh administration lost no time in taking precautionary measures.

It should be noted that currently we are in chaitra maas durinh, according to the Hindu religious calendar. No religious yatra is undertaken in this period. The VHP was thus clearly pressing for an irreligious act to further a political agenda at Mr Modi’s behest. The Uttar Pradesh administration ensured that an irreligious act was not committed by irreligious people.

The resounding rejection of the VHP’s plan was made obvious when the people of Faizabad refused to participate in its irreligious yatra. Also, none of the “dharm gurus” or religious leaders of Ayodhya came out in support of the political drama being enacted by the VHP.
It is evident that the Bharatiya Janata Party and other Sangh Parivar affiliates highlight the issue of the Ram temple at Ayodhya only when elections approach.

People have quite rightly recognised the BJP as a party which plays with their religious emotions and gets its sister organisations to inflame the social and political atmosphere.

The BJP is not at all serious about the Ram temple. It dropped the issue from its agenda when it came to power at the Centre. For over six years when in office, this party and its alliance partners in the National Democratic Alliance made certain that the Ayodhya question lay buried. Since then, however, the party has not been able to find ways to return to power.

Hence, the issue which helped it climb from a mere two MPs in Lok Sabha to 89 is back in prominence as a mobilising tool for purposes of electoral gain. And the man accused of the worst communal violence in the history of India is orchestrating the move in the hope of capturing national power.

FULL TEXT AT: http://www.asianage.com/debate/poll-time-devotion-600