The Ayodhya issue is unlikely to die out anytime soon with parties vying to appropriate majority sentiments in varying proportions to suit their political agendas.
When
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav
Thackeray paid his maiden visit to Ayodhya last month, he
announced that he would become a regular visitor to the temple town.
Hundreds
of Shiv Sainiks were ferried aboard two special trains from
Maharashtra for Thackeray’s two-day itinerary, which took in a
public meeting and obeisance to the makeshift Ramlala temple on the
grounds of the demolished Babri Masjid.
This
special trip by the head of a regional party to Ground Zero of
Hindutva politics was symptomatic of the political power play around
the Ayodhya issue in the run-up to the 2019
Lok Sabha elections.
Not
to be outdone, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a frontrunner of the temple
movement, staged a show of strength on November 25, seeking an early
construction of the Lord Ram temple via an ordinance, also attacking
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while it was about it.
What
did the Congress and other parties do? They played safe, weakly
blaming the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for raking up the temple issue
to inflame emotions for electoral gains. Not that this supposed
outrage stopped the Congress from opting for a soft Hindutva line,
with party President Rahul Gandhi proclaiming himself a “Shiv
Bhakt,” visiting temples and even declaring his gotra (clan).
In
other words, the Ayodhya
issue is unlikely to die out anytime soon with parties vying to
appropriate majority sentiments in varying proportions to suit their
political agendas. The issue also has acquired the characteristics of
a Bollywood caper. This includes Prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy, the
self-proclaimed descendant of last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar,
and the Uttar Pradesh Central Shia Waqf Board chairperson Waseem
Rizvi.
Tucy
has supported an out-of-court settlement, while Rizvi has demanded
the disputed site be handed over to Shias, since the demolished
structure was built by Mughal emperor Babur’s Shia army commander
Mir Baqi. Bizarrely, he supports a temple at the site.
Much
now depends on the Supreme Court. On October 29, the apex court had
turned down pleas for an early hearing in the Ayodhya title dispute
and posted the matter for deciding on the hearings in the first week
of January 2019.
