Hey Ram!

Ifstate elections in Uttar Pradesh are around the corner, could the Ayodhyamovement be far behind? Amidst battle lines being drawn up for the February2002 elections where the ruling BJP is facing a tough battle at hands, mainlyfrom the Samajvadi Party (SP), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) latest move in the five-decade-old disputeis starting a sant chetavani yatra, a procession of holy and rather billigerentsaffron-clad saints who want to build the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, where thedisputed Babri Masjid was razed to the ground in December, 1992.

Thatthe march does not ignore election realities was made clear by its leader, VHPleader Ashok Singhal, who said that the yatra to "build the temple" had beenorganised to ensure that "Hindu unity remains intact" and prevents"ourfragmentation into castes and sects every time elections are held". Notsurprisingly, the march which set off from Ayodhya to Delhi reached theassembly constituency of Haidergarh from where state chief minister and BJPstrongman Rajnath Singh is contesting elections and was filing nominations.

(Theirony is complete when you contrast this with the pains VHP's InternationalGeneral Secretary Tagodia took to distance this yatra from the elections:"We will leave UP before withdrawal of nominations and return only onFebruary 24 after the elections, for the Purnahuti")

Singh,under pressure from the VHP, said that the security setup in Ayodhya would berecast so that the ardent believers could get a chance to "pay obeisance toRam Lalla without any hindrance". That was done promptly. The UP homesecretary, Naresh Dayal, rushed to Ayodhya and agreed to relax restrictions onentry of heavy vehicles on the national highway passing through Ayodhya. Dayalalso said that other demands like relaxing curbs on the entry of cars and smallvehicles from the national highway to Hanuman Garhi temple, Kanak Bhavan andthe makeshift temple in the acquired land would be considered.

Theprocession, which is expected to reach Parliament on January 26, has given ahandle to those involved in political muscle flexing. For instance when theprocession reached Lucknow on the evening of January 21, VHP leader PraveenbhaiTogadia declared that the temple would be reconstructed at any date aroundMarch 12. "We cannot wait beyond a point. Now it will be a fight to thefinish."  Nearly 200 prominent sadhus including Shankaracharya Vasudeon, SwamyChinmayananda, Ramvilas Vedanti, Bhaskar Giri Swamy Devyanand and JagannathMaharaj from Nepal are participating in the rally. Sadhus participating in the`yatra' have said that the march was not only for the construction of the Ramtemple but also to mobilise Hindu masses against Islamic terrorism.

The BJPhas been quick to disassociate itself from the yatra, which is being billed asthe "final assault" in its campaign for the construction of a Ram temple.While BJP MPs are free to join the "yatra'' and no disciplinary action wouldbe taken against them, the party is in no way involved with the march. Or so itwould like to have it believed. "TheRam mandir issue is one of national identity and is a cultural issue, it wasbeen a big issue for us but never a political one,'' BJP general secretary MayaSingh told journalists. Two party MPs, Chinmayanand and Vinay Katiyar areaccompanying the yatra. While the party's state election manifesto is yet to befinalised, it is not certain whether the Ram temple issue will figure or in itor not. It would appear that the central leadership is not in favour ofincluding it and there has been more than a hint to that effect by PrimeMinister Vajpayee himself.

But oneof the main personas of VHP's `sant' politics, Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhans ofthe Ramjanma Bhoomi Trust, who had so far stayed away from the yatra, and hasapparently announced his intentions of opposing the BJP in the state assembly elections.Top VHP leaders are said to be persuading the saint to join proceedings and oneof them expressed the hope that the revered swamy would join in soon.

As Iwrite this, comes the "clarification" from Paramhans, who finallyjoined the yatra at Kanpur today, saying he "remained in Ayodhya to teachUnion Home Minister Lal Kishan Advani a lesson for implementing many unwantedsecurity restrictions causing inconvenience to visiting devotees atAyodhya".

Earlier addressing the Yatra at Phoolbagh here, Paramhans made it clear thatthe construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya would start by March 12irrespective of any hurdle. Could he give a fixed date? "I had not evengiven a date for demolition of Babri Masjid," he said. Could the date bedeferred from March 12 as was done earlier? "Earlier the constructionmaterial was not ready, now I don't see any reason for deferring theconstruction". So that's that.

"I will not care for any government action or wait for court judgement,but will act according to what was decided by the 'Dharam Charyas' for theconstruction of Rama Temple, which will start by all means and no one can stopit," Paramhans has  said. He is now supposed to meet the primeminister on Jan 27 to remind him of his promise that all hurdles in the way ofconstruction would be removed by March 12.

"I am not begging the Prime Minister to construct the Temple," hesaid. "They are asking us to wait for the court's decision, Why should wego to court or wait for its decision. The day Hindus take a decision, the templewill be constructed. There is no dispute on 46 acres of land at Ayodhya. Thedispute is only of the "janam sathl. Let the government allow us to startconstruction on undisputed land and the issue about the 'Ram Janam Sathal' willbe taken later."

Meanwhilethe opposition parties have come down heavily upon the yatra. Congress leaderJaipal Reddy attacked the BJP for reviving the Ayodhya issue on the eve ofUP assembly elections, "We are once again witnessing the pathetic and shamefulspectacle of the Sangh Parivar reviving the temple issue. Whenever there iselection time, it is temple time for the Sangh parivar,'' Reddy told reporters.Samajvadi Party has asked for a ban on the yatra.

BJP MP Katiyar,predictably, has said that those who accuse the party of politicising theissue, do not understand the emotional attachment that people have to the templemovement. You could call it speaking in tongues or the divide in the BJP on thetemple issue, but the real politik of managing the coalition alliance on the onehand and the hardliners, out to "teach the home minister a lesson" onthe other, would be under a strenuous test in the coming days.  

For the time being, party spokesperson Maya Singh has come up with the old party line that "the BJP has always taken the stand that the Ayodhya issue be resolved either by a court verdict or by consensus among all the parties to the dispute. But, we cannot bar our party workers from joining the VHP yatra from Ayodhya provided they maintained decorum and did not cross the limits". She also added that the party has requested Swami Parmahans who is leading the yatra to ensure that the participants remain within limits and that it goes off peacefully". We do not know whether swamiji has any more lessons to teach Advaniji.

What isinteresting is the remark from VHP's International General Secretary Tagodiathat it  would suspend its agitation only in the event of a war andconsequent postponement of the election to the four state assemblies. 

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