Moving beyond Ram temple rhetoric not easy
The apex court’s suggestion for a negotiated settlement to the several centuries old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid dispute must be music to CM Yogi Adityanath’s ears. The court has also observed that sensitive issues are best settled through negotiations. The chief justice of India in fact offered to act as a mediator between the two parties staking claim to the disputed site.
Incidentally, former Allahabad HC judge Pulak Basu had, on behalf of the Ayodhya Vivad Samjhauta Samiti, sent a compromise formula, signed by 10,502 local inhabitants of the temple city, to the apex court in February 2017. The exercise began in 2010 and the formula includes building the Ram temple where the idols are placed and the Babri mosque, about 300 metres away from the disputed site but within the 67 acres of acquired land.
The construction of the Ram temple will perhaps be the CM’s biggest challenge. In all his poll speeches he has promised: “Is there any force that can stop the construction of temple? When they could not stop demolition of Babri mosque, how can they stop this?” As CM he will have to convert rhetoric to reality, but the bitter truth is that not all promises made in the electoral battlefield are easy to implement.
Despite his strong conviction that the Ram temple issue is a matter of faith that no court can decide, he as CM has no option but to look for an out-of-court settlement. The issue is caught in a legal wrangle that had compelled the BJP to push it to the backburner. Therefore, the observation of the SC comes as a relief. Now expectations have risen with ‘Modi in Delhi and Yogi in UP’ heading the majority government which the hardliners describe as a palatable situation.
The pressure has already started to build. The saffron scarves are back along with the chant ‘Ek hi naam, ek hi shaan, Jai Sri Ram, Jai Sri Ram.’ The slogan, which was associated with the country’s biggest religious movement, had gone silent after the demolition of the masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992.
It had also disappeared from BJP’s political narratives — the emotive issue, that had lost its viability after the demolition of the disputed shrine — had been flippantly dismissed on the last pages of the party’s poll manifesto. But Jai Sri Ram is back with a bang. It reverberated throughout
Zafaryab Jilani, contesting the case on behalf of the Sunni Waqf Board, is confident that the Centre and the state can do nothing as they will have to oppose the Supreme Court first. If they seek a revision in the court order by a constitutional bench of five judges, a bigger bench of seven judges will have to be constituted.
The other way forward is dialogue, something Jilani says they have already rejected since the matter should be decided by a court of law. However, now an observation has come from the SC and it is unlikely that the Muslim community will agree to any settlement outside the courts.
For any legislative move, the BJP may have to wait for their party’s strength to rise in the Rajya Sabha and for the country to get their new President. Thus they will have to wait for 2018, which is closer to the 2019 general elections. the state as the governor administered the oath of office and secrecy to the Yogi, bringing back the temple issue into focus.
At best, Yogi Adityanath can recreate the temple fever reminiscent of the Kalyan Singh era in the 1990s when the Jai Sri Ram slogan had become a way of life, dominating all public discourse and political meetings. But the party lost more electoral battles than winning them after the demolition of the disputed shrine in 1992. Now, after the 2014 general elections and 2017 state polls, the BJP knows what works best for the party – a cocktail of Hindutva and development.
Moving beyond the rhetoric will be a huge task as the impediments are more challenging than what Kalyan Singh had faced in the 1990s. Even then, the CM had to take one step forward and two steps backward to circumvent the status quo order of the court.