Making an agenda of religious sentiments again

The nation and its citizens are once again going to lose before the evil designs of the Sangh Parivar to sabotage the life issues faced by the nation during the time of elections by raising religious, communal and sensitive matters.

They have decided to use religious sentiments again as the main agenda that determines the 2019 general elections through campaigns that the approaches of the Supreme Court – as in in the Sabarimala issue concerning the entry of women and Babri Masjid dispute over the plot of land - insult the sentiments of the Hindu majority. And the trigger for this campaign are two verdicts of the apex court. Through the propaganda against the court verdicts, the Sangh Parivar has been weaving the tactics to mobilize the Hindu votes and exert pressure on the courts to influence the future verdicts.

During his visit to Kerala, BJP president Amit Shah had passed a comment on the Sabarimala issue that the top court should consider the public sentiments while issuing orders and not pronounce verdicts that cannot be enforced. Shah’s statement are liable to contempt of court charges. RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi had also made similar remarks during a press conference on the concluding day of the three-day national executive body meeting of the organization on the Ayodhya issue. He told the journalists that since the Supreme Court’s decision to postpone the Ayodhya case was an ‘insult’ to the Hindu sentiments, the Centre should bring an ordinance to pave way for the construction of Ram temple and if needed the Sangh Parivar would launch a 1992-like mass agitation. It was after the meeting between Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and Amit Shah that the RSS general secretary declared an open war against the Supreme Court and the agitation that can lead to communal polarization.

The Sangh Parivar has been pressing for a government ordinance to take over the land where Babri Masjid once existed and to build a temple there. They also calculate that they could ignite the Hindu majority sentiments through that and succeed in influencing both the 2019 general elections and the Supreme Court verdict.

The remarks of the RSS general secretary that the Supreme Court should dispose the case as soon as possible considering the Hindu sentiments and that they cannot wait indefinitely for good news is a warning to the court. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has also come out criticising the top court. He made it clear that Modi government has the power to issue an ordinance to build a Ram temple and that the Hindu religious leaders and the RSS would demand the same from the government. He also said that the delay in issuing the court verdict is what led to the demolition of Babri Masjid and that it was the responsibility of the court to ensure that the Ram temple issue does not get politicized.

RSS ideologue and BJP's Rajya Sabha member, Rakesh Sinha is preparing to introduce a private bill in the Rajya Sabha demanding construction of a temple in Ayodhya. Central minister Uma Bharati has declared that she is ready to sacrifice her life for a Ram temple and demanded an order to be issued urgently for the building of the temple. Another of the same school, President of Ramjanbhoomi Nyas, Ram Vilas Vedanti has said he will start in December the construction of a temple in the plot where Babri masjid stood. Vedanti's utterance comes on the heels of RSS Joint Secretary Vaidya making it clear that he will launch a Ram temple movement, similar to the kar seva that demolished Babri Masjid in 1992. And BJP's state president in UP, Mahendra Nath stated that the Uttar Pradesh government has taken a decision to build a 151-metre tall Ram statue on the banks of Sarayu river, and the declaration about it would be made by chief minister Yogi Adityanath around during Diwali.

By altering the decision taken by the three-member bench headed by former Chief Justice Dipak Misra, what Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi attempted was to close the possibility to make the ownership of Babari masjid land an election agenda. But the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are trying to turn it into an opportunity to make an emotional stir out of it, and to make new laws by raising protests about an anti-Hindu court. The statement by retired by J Chelmeswar pointing out that there are several precedents of not having waited for court verdicts and of bypassing legal process, and therefore the possibility of an ordinance for temple construction cannot be ruled out, is evidently prompted by the knowledge about the hidden interests of the government. He warns that although the question whether this will have legal sanction is pertinent, what is more important is whether that will happen or not. The government's moves to overturn court judgements and the judicial machinery in line with Sangh interests, have brought the country to a precarious precipice.