To do this, the party will expect a favourable judgment from the Supreme Court on the subject in the next few weeks. But the party must be keeping its fingers crossed for one can never be sure.

It is unlikely that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have a Plan B in case the verdict does not meet their expectations. For one thing, a resort to violence in such an eventuality will be counter-productive although the RSS has warned of a revival of a movement on the lines of what happened in 1992-93 if the ground is not prepared for building the temple either via the judgment or a law.

It may be recalled that countrywide riots had followed the demolition of the Babri masjid in 1992 and the subsequent terrorist attacks in Mumbai in the following year. When the general election is due, however, in three or four months’ time, violence will damage the party and the parivar rather than help them although at one time, the belief was that a riot tends to consolidate the Hindu vote in the BJP’s favour.

But the times have changed. In an India of malls and multiplexes where the burgeoning middle class believes in a consumerist culture, any large-scale disturbances are unwelcome to a political party, especially in a metro.

Yet, a favourable judgement has become a must for the BJP because it believes, as does the RSS, that in the absence of “achhe din” when unemployment is making the youth turn away from the party unlike five years ago, the temple remains the Hindutva camp’s only viable electoral card.

Neither the supply of cooking gas connections, nor the schemes for rural electrification and cheaper houses, nor the (largely empty) Jan Dhan bank balances, nor the promise of higher minimum support prices for crops is enough to set off the kind of a wave which swept the BJP to power in 2014.

The reason is that these endeavours do not make a dent in the unemployment problem, which can only be solved via substantial industrial and social services investments by the private sector.

But these are absent because of the atmosphere of tension and fear which prevails, especially among the minorities as a result of the violent antics of the gaurakshaks and others in the saffron fringe whose latest objective is to stop the new year’s day celebrations.

Since the BJP’s failures have been on two fronts – economic and social – the RSS had begun to initiate steps on the temple to recover some of the lost ground which is already evident in the BJP’s defeats in the Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections.

In its eagerness to play the temple card, some of the RSS spokesmen had even begun to criticize the judiciary, expressing surprise that when the court could meet at midnight to decide on a case concerning a terrorist, why it chose to take its time in considering the temple issue.

In some of these statements, including BJP president Amit Shah’s advice to the judiciary not to give orders which cannot be implemented, as in Sabarimala, the parivar’s unease with the present constitutional order is apparent.

The Hindutva camp has always believed that the constitution is largely based on a Western model whereas the founding fathers should have closely followed the diktats in the Manusmriti, which reflect the Indian reality.

It is this mindset which made the saffronities say in 1992-93 that the courts can have no say in a matter of faith such as the putative birthplace of Lord Ram.

The same attitude makes the Hindutva lobby decry the judicial orders on the Diwali and dahi-handi celebrations with Meghalaya’s saffron governor, Tathagata Roy, asking why the court doesn’t ban the azaan, the call for prayers from mosques.

The BJP, however, has become more cautious about what to say about the judiciary and the constitution, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing the constitution as a holy book. The party now prefers to leave it to the RSS and the likes of Roy to express what can perhaps be called the parivar’s real mind.

But the big test for the BJP about its adherence to the constitution will come when the Supreme Court delivers its Ayodhya verdict, especially if it is not fully to the saffron camp’s liking.

For the RSS, however, it is a question of now or never. If work is not started soon on building the temple, it will never be done since the BJP’s political prospects do not look very bright.

Even if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gets a majority, the BJP will not be able to push the case for the temple if it doesn’t have a majority of its own, which looks unlikely, for as the Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan has said, the temple is the BJP’s agenda, not the NDA’s. (IPA Service)