Swift Sangh gets Parivar together in temple run

So the gloves are off, though it wasn't expected to be so quick. The players aren't exactly those who had taken part in the preliminary rounds of the game quarter of a century ago. But the leader then and few current players are the same. The game is Ram Temple Run. The skipper, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), feels that the spirit with which the movement needed to be rebuilt across the country should be raised in an unprecedented manner.

Keeping a promise it had made just a couple of weeks ago, the Sangh Parivar has taken a big leap towards regenerating a 1992-like agitation for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Beginning November 25, expect the RSS, its political offshoot BJP, and frontal associates such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal and many others to paint the towns and villages saffron. On the day, RSS' ideological capital Nagpur, a southern metro, Bengaluru, and a hotbed, Ayodhya, where the temple is demanded on the disputed site, will host 'hunkar (loosely translated as challenge) rallies'.

In Nagpur, all BJP legislators and public representatives are tasked with ensuring large participation. Before the main rally, smaller rallies will be held in the city and neighbouring towns to mobilise the Ram bhakts. The Karnataka Sangh Parivar and BJP have been told to ensure success in Bengaluru, while a rally in Ayodhya is being pursued as a hit.

Counter for Uddhav
In Ayodhya, the BJP and Parivar are all fired up for putting up a show of strength the day Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has his own public rally scheduled there. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has done the groundwork with the announcement of renaming Faizabad as Ayodhya. The November 25 rally should be seen as a setback to Uddhav, who has challenged the Modi government to meet the demand at the earliest, or else the Sena would build the temple on his own.

It was Uddhav who first gave a call to the Hindus to march towards Ayodhya, raking up the issue much before RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat asked for building the temple in his Vijaya Dashmi address in Nagpur. Uddhav had welcomed the RSS stand, but wondered why shouldn't the BJP's parent body ask the Modi government to step down for not meeting the Hindu community's most popular demand.

The Sena hasn't reacted to the Sangh Parivar's attempts to overshadow Uddhav in the temple run, but his party is learned to have prepared itself to make the event a Hindutva exercise that should appease a voters base in Maharashtra, and bolster elsewhere in the country the Sena's image of a 'militant' Hindutva outfit that can go extreme, as it had done in the Babri matter by publicly claiming responsibility for the masjid's demolition.

Saints at the forefront
In replicating the past, spiritual leaders, sanyasis and sadhvis will lead the agitation. It seems in line with RSS' suggestion that the organisation would extend support if religious personalities take the initiative (in mounting pressure on the BJP government to build the temple). For example, Sadhvi Rithambara, who would steal the show with her fiery speeches in 1990-92, has been invited to inaugurate the Nagpur challenge. A member of saints' high-level committee Jitendranath Maharaj, who wields a considerable clout in Hindus belonging to a certain sect, will be among the inaugural speakers. People in the know say that Rithambara would travel across the country to incite Ram bhakts.

Up north where it matters most politically, the Parivar plans an atmosphere to be one of its kind in Ayodhya, before it spreads out to the rest of the country before a model code of conduct for Lok Sabha comes into force early next year. Before it gets wider, after effects of the RSS strategy are showing. The Congress manifesto in Madhya Pradesh has hopped into the Ram bhakt bogie by promising to define, notify and develop 'Ram Path', a route that Lord Ram had taken during the vanvas (forced exile) through Madhya Pradesh into Chhattisgarh, which according to Yogi Adityanath should also have a Ayodhya-like Ram temple built, because the region is where Lord Ram's maternal grandfather ruled. Toeing the Hindutva line further, the Congress in MP has also promised to develop a Narmada Parikrama (a route along the banks of the river) and a commercial production of cow dung cakes and cow urine. Does this tell where our politics is headed?

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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