“Dear Hindus”, he has tweeted. “Most important lesson is that control of State power by Hindus is absolutely essential for sustenance of Dharma. When we didn’t control our State, we lost our temple. When we regained, we rebuilt. The 282 in 2014 and 303 in 2019 to Sri @narendramodi made this possible”.

What this observation reveals of the Hindutva mindset is revealing. It is clear that the BJP regards a parliamentary majority not as a means of running the government in between elections, but as a way of grabbing “State power”. Not only that, for the BJP, “State power” is equivalent to the power of the majority community – the Hindus

This explains why the BJP wasted no time after winning 303 seats in the Lok Sabha to begin implementing some of the key features of its manifesto, viz. abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution conferring a special status on Kashmir and begin the temple construction with the Supreme court’s imprimatur.

Although the BJP received support in parliament not only from its allies, but also from some of the parties outside the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by it, it is obvious that the party saw no reason to hold back on the implementation of its pro-Hindu agenda since it had “State power” in its hands and, therefore, could ride roughshod over whatever contrary sentiments the minorities harboured.

Such an attitude signified that if the BJP could rewrite the Constitution’s opening lines, it would choose the phrase, “we, the Hindus” in the place of “we, the people”. For the Hindutva brotherhood, however, the two terms are synonymous. It is understandable, therefore, why the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, is in the habit of saying that all Indians are Hindus even if he means this labelling in cultural terms to allay apprehensions.

In a way, the assurances about Lord Ram belonging to all and that Ram rajya implies everyone’s welfare irrespective of caste or community are in line with the unstated concept of the dominance of the Hindus wth the promise that the concerns of the others will be kept in mind by the group controlling “State power”. This domineering outlook explains why the RSS/BJP rejects the multicultural “idea” of India and prefers the idea of a Hindu rashtra.

There are those who believe that greater reliance be placed on the prime minister’s sabka saath-sabka vishwas-sabka vikas mantra than on the words of controversial M.P. who saw the anti-citizenship act protests in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh as the harbinger of a Mughal raj. The mellowing of the Jai Shri Ram chant to Jai Siya Ram during the temple ceremony has also been interepreted as an indication of a toning down of the BJP’s stance.

However, the portents of the future are still unclear. Will the Jai Shri Ram war cry return if the BJP finds the going tough in some of the forthcoming state elections and fears the dilution of its “State power”? Has the BJP said goodbye to the harassment of Muslims via ghar wapsi and love jehad campaigns? Will it ensure that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) does not target Indian Muslims along with the Bangladeshi “termites”?

As is obvious, it all depends on the electoral outcome in Bihar, West Bengal, U.P., Punjab, Assam and elsewhere in the coming months. Depending on what the voters show about their approval of the temple construction or of their indifference, the BJP and its opponents will determine their political strategy.

For the present, the BJP has everything doing for it with even the “secular” Congress lending i support to the temple project if only because it does not want to alienate the Hindu voter. But the perception of both the camps can change if there are signs that the issue is not uppermost in the electorate’s mind and that there is greater concern about other subjects, such as the citizenship law, as in Assam.

The state of the economy is also likely to have an impact as will the conditions on the Sino-Indian border. A deterioration in either field cannot but erode any political gains which the BJP may have made by keeping its promise on building the temple.

Kashmir is another factor. As the imposition of a curfew on the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 demonstrated, the valley remains tense and unhappy over the deprivation of Kashmir’s special status. The change of three Lt. Governors in a year also underlines the same unsettled conditions. The temple is here, therefore but Ram rajya is still far off. (IPA Service)