Secular vs non secular to take centerstage

The Ram temple has become a reality. ‘Ram Ghar Aagaye,’ but what next? The BJP which had created a clamour around the consecration of Lord Rama at the newly constructed temple in Ayodhya will now focus to win over the Muslims who are in big numbers in the state. In fact, there is going to be a competition between the BJP, SP and the Congress to woo the Muslims in UP and between respective parties of bloc INDIA and BJP in different states.

While the Congress and SP will find fault with the BJP for converting a normal religious issue into a mega political event, the BJP wants to adopt a different approach. It would be more of a direct contact particularly with the Muslim women beneficiaries of schemes like Ujjwala, PM Awas Yojana, Ayushman Bharat and Swachh Bharat. A preview of this style of campaign was witnessed at Ayodhya when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to visit the house of the beneficiary at Ayodhya. Of course it was not a Muslim family but this family had the distinction of being the family whose number was at one crore beneficiary who got a house unde PM Awas Yojana and gas connection.

Sitting in the house which had un-plastered brick walls, he enquired if they had to pay bribe to get the benefits and what the lady of the house had cooked on gas. When she said she had prepared tea for him on this newly acquired gas stove, he asked her to serve it and appreciating the tea he said being a ‘Chaiwala’ he knows the taste of which tea is good and which is bad. Through his interaction with them he struck a chord of friendship with them. They are left elated as PM had tea in the house of a common man and they would naturally become his brand ambassadors.

The saffron party would now be taking up this style of campaign in places like Saharanpur, Badaun, Moradabad, Aligarh, Amroha etc. The BJP will step up its efforts to reach out to Muslim beneficiaries. To what extent the rhetoric of Congress and SP will stand in front of this type campaign remains to be seen.

BJP will also take up similar programmes in other states and will give a local touch to the nomenclature of the campaign. In UP it will be Shukriya Modi Bhaijan, In West Bengal it will be Shukriya Modi Dada, in Maharashtra it will be Shukriya Modi Bhau, in Temil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Shukriya Modi Anna.

The successful conduct of the event at Ayodhya and the proposed ‘Shukriya’ campaign has caused concern among the BRS in Telangana. The party leaders feel that the religious fervour over Ayodhya created by BJP would certainly have impact on the Telangana voters in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress and bloc INDIA want to intensify their campaign saying that the government was no more secular and for the sake of elections they had spent huge amounts on development of Ayodhya. About USD 10 billion. They would also question the government if they can show similar interest in developing other places of religion in similar manner and make them sought after tourist destinations.

It is estimated that about one lakh devotees would visit Ayodhya daily. Ayodhya will also have chopper services from six cities of the state and will speed up conservation programme of another 37 ancient temples, expand the airport in the holy city. Will the BJP government shower similar benevolence on other states which too have many ancient temples and other religious places? If not it would only mean that what all the BJP has no right to call itself a secular party. It is a party that believes in polarisation.

One thing is clear, the BJP has succeeded in setting the agenda for the Lok Sabha elections. The rhetoric against Adani which is Rahul Gandhi’s favourite jibe would go into background and most of the campaign would revolve on who is secular and who is non secular. This has the potential for greater polarisation of votes.