PM Narendra Modi In Tamil Nadu
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, January 21: The Ram Idol consecration ceremony on Monday has now almost gripped the country with national festivities. From stock market to hospitals, from private companies to institutions, there appears a stage set for the wholesome participation of the cross section of the society in the ceremony for the ‘Pran Pratistha’ of ‘Ram Lalla’ in Ayodhya.
The foreign media has turned its lens on Ayodhya to read Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direction as well as of India in the next few years. Audre Truschke, a South Asian historian, suggested in the Time magazine commentary that the political gains for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of the Ayodhya template is a certainty. She wrote: “If history is any guide, this tactic of harnessing majoritarian sentiment for political gain may well succeed.”
Michael Kugleman, a South Asia observer, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine that Modi has crafted the Ram Temple template effectively in his electoral narrative for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He argued that Modi has stitched temple and welfarism in his political outreach.
Al Jazeera is closely tracking the Ayodhya ceremony with reports from all across India to bring the people’s voices to capture the national fervor surrounding the January 22 event in Uttar Pradesh. It noted that the television shows now revolve around Ram’s life.
Qatar-based television channel stated that even reality television are dedicating episodes to the Ram theme against a makeshift temple backdrop in the studio. It wrote: “News television channel vehicles are sporting huge Ram stickers. The studios feature large cutouts of Ram.”
Even at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Indian television anchors are talking Ram Temple. The Indian politicians from the Opposition ranks such as the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Revanth Reddy are fending off queries on going to Ayodhya.
But Truschke picks up warning signals from her analysis in the Time magazine, arguing that the “inauguration portends dark times ahead”. She claims that not only Muslims but even Hindus who abide by pluralism and tolerance may have to face stress.
Arguing that “Hindu supremacists have long sought to reduce the broad-based Hindu religious tradition”, Truschke claimed that the Ayodhya ceremony is a sizeable step to the hardening of Hindutva agenda of the ruling dispensation.
But Kugleman in Foreign Policy spotlighted deeper political message of Modi with consecration ceremony, arguing that the prime minister has enlisted the poor in his temple plot. He argued that “Ram Mandir is being messaged around social welfare and development”.
Incidentally, Kugleman links up inauguration of several infrastructure projects in Ayodhya and Modi’s spotlighting Rama’s life story tales to uplifting the poor to argue the case of the prime minister amplifying “a softer Hindu nationalism” for the people outside the core base of the BJP. Possibly, he hints at Modi’s bid to take the BJP into the southern parts of the country while also enlisting the extremely backward castes in the saffron hue.
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