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New Delhi, Oct. 19: Culture and tourism minister Mahesh Sharma's sortie to Ayodhya has given the BJP the Bihar blues.
Just as attacks on Muslims suspected to have slaughtered cows for meat took precedence over the BJP's stick-to-development-and-governance agenda ahead of the Bihar elections, the ruling party now fears the Ram temple might throw it from its " vikas" and "law and order" track to defending its stand on potentially divisive issues.
Sharma was in the pilgrim town yesterday to review the site allocated for building a Ram museum, which is part of the Centre's larger project to develop faith circuits ostensibly to attract tourists.
Uttar Pradesh BJP vice-president Shiv Pratap Shukla, a Gorakhpur veteran, said: "Museum and the temple are different. Everybody takes Ram's name sometime during the day. As tourism minister, it was incumbent on Sharma to check the land for the museum."
A central BJP source had a different take. He admitted that Sharma's trip was catalysed by the "dubious" stand the Akhilesh Yadav government had allegedly adopted on raising a Ram Leela theme park, also in Ayodhya.
"The Ram museum dates back two years. Two months ago, the Centre finalised the date for laying the foundation. But the Uttar Pradesh government dithered. Land allocation is the state's purview and in his zeal to take credit, Akhilesh Yadav announced the theme park. So we had to respond," the source said.
"But to call the museum communal is absurd because such museums are part of other circuits proposed by the Centre for Krishna, Buddhism, Sikhism and Sufism."
However, an Uttar Pradesh BJP source boasted that the other faiths were a "ruse" to project and propagate Ram. "It's good for us. Ram is on our agenda, we used the temple issue to our maximum benefit (in the 1989 and 1991 Lok Sabha elections).
"Besides, this is the best time to flag Ram because the Supreme Court is expected to start hearing the case shortly. Once that happens, the government will have to follow the court's directives."
Another reading of the Ram temple resurrection was that although the BJP's "credibility on championing it" was "low", the party had to do it in the competition to foreground icons in elections.
"The BSP has Ambedkar and now Kanshi Ram, the Samajwadi has Ram Manohar Lohia and we have our Ram. Among all of them, Ram clicks the most with all Hindus," a source argued.
"I challenge Mayawati (BSP leader) to say something critical about the Lord. She will not because she knows that Dalits venerate him."
However, there were enough sceptics and doomsayers who wondered if it made sense to flag the temple at this stage.
Rajya Sabha MP and former temple spearhead Vinay Katiyar, who had dubbed Sharma's move a "lollipop" yesterday, told this newspaper: "The fact is there is no land either for the museum or the theme park."
"In Kalyan Singhji's time, we had used some land (around the disputed site) to build a Ram Katha centre. Akhilesh Yadav cleverly wants his theme park in this place while his government is looking at land for our museum some 50km away from Ayodhya. Does this make sense?"
Mohanlalganj MP Kaushal Kishore, who started out as a CPI member, was clear that it was "development" all the way in the polls.
"The Opposition is going on and on about the temple to distract us from (Narendra) Modiji's focus on development."Asked why the Prime Minister raised the "Jai Shri Ram" slogan twice in his Dussehra speech in Lucknow, Kishore's answer was: "A slogan on a pious occasion like that has no link with the temple.
"Modiji is on his way to making India a 'vishwa guru' (world teacher) and our only option is development."
Brijesh Singh, a Faizabad transporter and a former district Congress functionary, said: "Right now, nothing else matters more to the people, even our rickshawallahs, than the boldness displayed by Modi in conducting the surgical strikes. That's the issue and not the Ram temple."
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