By
Sagarneel Sinha
Shiv
Sena, which shares power in Maharashtra and at the Centre as a junior partner
of BJP, has jumped into the chorus of raising the demand for Lord Ram’s Temple
in Ayodhya — even more vociferously than the BJP — which rose to significance
owing to the Temple politics back in the 90s. The Supreme Court’s verdict that
the bench to hear the case related to Ayodhya dispute would be decided in
January next year — still not sure when the actual hearing will start — with
more possibilities that it will not be solved before 2019 — has provided the
BJP — battling against rising anti-incumbency — the opportunity to exploit the
situation in its favour.
However,
as the party is in power and it has earlier always maintained that the dispute
would be solved only through the Supreme Court, so, the BJP, officially, is hesitant
to pitch openly on this issue. So what! The party has its own large family —
the saffron family — who are there to help BJP — after all, family is family.
Seems that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is trying to follow the family
principles by rightly pitching the demand for Lord Ram’s Temple in Ayodhya,
probably at the right time. Uddhav Thackeray, who visited Ayodhya, has
criticised BJP by saying — “Before elections it’s only about Ram, Ram and after
elections, it’s only aaram (rest)”.
Shiv
Sena, which is nearer to the Hindutva spectrum in comparison to BJP, has its
own reasons for pitching the demand of Ram Temple. Already, Shiv Sena, unhappy
with BJP’s big brotherly attitude, has decided to contest solo in the upcoming
Lok Sabha polls and subsequently in the Maharashtra state elections — which are
to be held later in 2019. However, the truth is Shiv Sena, if it contests
alone, will hurt itself more than hurting the BJP and this will only help the
rival Congress – NCP combine.
Shiv
Sena knows that it has to face the anti-incumbency factor as it has been also
in power along with BJP. Although, Shiv Sena has been behaving like an
opposition party by routinely attacking the policies of the Modi government in
the party mouthpiece Saamna for the last four and a half years, the party knows
that this is not enough to win seats in elections. If local elections are any
indication then one point is clear that BJP has been successful in stretching
its arms in all parts of Maharashtra. On the other hand, Shiv Sena till today
hasn’t been able to become a pan-Maharashtra party.
Shiv
Sena may be critical against the BJP but the dilemma is that presently it
cannot go with the Congress and the NCP as ideologically it is a hard-Hindutva
party. There are reports that Congress is hesitant to take Shiv Sena on board
due to its hard-Hindutva stance. Obviously, Congress, which has been attacking
the BJP for ‘destroying’ secularism, cannot afford to go with an alliance with
the Shiv Sena, which is ideologically more right than the BJP. Addition to
this, BJP has Narendra Modi to battle against anti-incumbency but Shiv Sena has
no leader post the death of its supreme leader — Bal Thackeray. Uddhav
Thackeray is aware of the truth that he is no match to his late father.
Again,
Uddhav doesn’t want to play second fiddle to BJP in Maharashtra. So, Shiv Sena
— which has no mass leader presently — needs an emotional issue that suits
their ideology and also serves the party to strengthen its base. The Ram
Temple, an emotional issue to the majority community, has presently provided
Shiv Sena the much-needed opportunity. Shiv Sena is sensing that the Ram Temple
issue will help the party gain votes in Maharashtra and may be helpful to gain
some outside the state too.
Uddhav’s
hopes bolstered when BJP sealed the 50:50 seats agreement with Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). It is to be noted that in 2014, BJP bagged 22
seats and JD(U), contesting alone, had to be satisfied with only 2 seats. But
this time both the parties agreed to contest together on 17 seats each — means
BJP will be sacrificing 5 seats it won in 2014 for the sake of alliance. It is
a clear indication from BJP that the party is not in a strong position as it
was in 2014 and it cannot take the risk of ‘ekla cholo’ in crucial states like
Maharashtra, the second most significant state with 48 seats after Uttar
Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and Uddhav Thackeray is aware of the
fact.
Given
the current scenario, Shiv Sena will find it easier to deal with BJP than with
the Congress and the other opposition parties. Additionally, the truth is BJP
hasn’t been too critical against Shiv Sena officially. BJP has always
maintained that Shiv Sena is an important ally despite Saamna’s routine
criticisms of the Modi government. So, politically, it is better for Shiv Sena
to highlight Ram Temple and this is what Uddhav Thackeray is trying to pursue.
With BJP’s growing base in the state, Sena needs a strong emotional issue to
prevent its voters from crossing towards the BJP, which is ideologically close
to the party and pitch for Ram Temple will help Sena to maintain its core
voters intact.
Besides
for the BJP, Shiv Sena raising the Ram Temple issue vigorously is actually good
news as this is the cause that unites them. More importantly, more talks of
Temple will in reality help in neutralising the other core public concerns,
which currently are in a position to damage BJP’s electoral prospects in 2019.
Then BJP will be having ‘strong’ reasons citing Shiv Sena and other saffron
outfits’ demand as people’s true aspirations which propelled the government to
take an action and would also help in bridging the gap between the two allies
ahead of the elections. That’s why BJP also raised no concerns against Uddhav
Thackeray’s Ayodhya visit.
BJP
president Amit Shah had said the party will look for what happens in the
Supreme Court when it hears the case in January. But the party too wants the
temple momentum to remain in the ground. So, seems that it’s a well-planned
strategy that both the parties — BJP and Shiv Sena — are actually trying to
play the hard-Hindutva card to neutralise the anti-incumbency factor against
them. After all, the 19th century philosopher Karl Marx was right — “Religion
is the opium of the masses” and both BJP and Shiv Sena are aware of the power
religion can play in the upcoming elections! (IPA Service)
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