The archeological finds being discovered on a daily basis appears straight out of a period drama with fading images of people who populated an India of long, long ago. Of princesses and princes, of kings and queens, of conquests and conquerors; of the vanquished and of takeovers of their temples for transformation into places of worship of a religion brought to the subcontinent by invaders.

Right now, after a hiatus of hundreds of years, after the ‘Sambhal’ finds, ‘Sanatan dharma’ is seeing a rejuvenation, both religiously and politically. Elated Hindus are talking of the return of the ‘Golden Age’ in which Bharat is graphically juxtaposed as "Sone Ki Chidiya". Sambhal’s “discovery” has given a new narrative to Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Discovery of India'. Like it or not, you cannot take Nehru-Gandhi out of India and India-reborn!

Left-liberal historians would be horrified but the average Hindu believes Sambhal symbolizes Sanatan's return to centre-stage after nearly a 1000 years in the wilderness of religious and cultural irrelevance. And it is happening with rising political and economical dominance — vikas and virasat, both!

The BJP just happens to be in the thick of things. Otherwise, Sambhal caught even the BJP by surprise. Sambhal is where the 10th avatar of Lord Vishnu is believed “will appear in human form” and nobody thought preparations for the divine arrival were already on. It was just another ASI survey underway and ignoring it would have been bliss. But, for no sound reason, people of a certain bent of mind went berserk.

Since then, politics has taken direct hits and so-called 'secular political parties', like Samajwadi Party and the Congress, have had to take a relook at where they stood in terms of their vote-banks. The Samajwadi Party, for instance, is no longer talking from a position of strength that had come with the party's impressive 2024 Lok Sabha performance.

The spoils of Akhilesh Yadav's 'PDA', which had put Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 'Abki baar 400 paar' in the shade. Today, six months on, where is 'PDA'? It is as if 'Pichada Dalit Alpsankyak' drowned in one of the 19 wells discovered in Sambhal along with barricaded temples and other symbols and signs of the Sanatan.

The question deserves another repeat: Where has 'PDA' gone, if not put out to pasture? Second question, where does 'Sambhal' leave the INDI-Alliance in the Hindi-belt? And where stands the Congress in the transformed politics of the region post-Sambhal? The 9 UP bypolls had already put Samajwadi Party-Congress ties in no-man's land. Has ‘Sambhal’ sounded the death-knell?

Today, both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party are competing for the same battered, hit, demoralized and smarting Muslim vote-bank, which had made Sambhal its launching pad for a bigger stake in the politics of the state and country. Which of the two, Samajwadi Party and Congress, will get the all-crucial Muslim votes?

To add to the INDI-Alliance's troubles, the BJP is also making a play for the Muslim vote-bank, taking advantage of the divisions within the Muslim community. The BJP's 'Kundarki victory', which saw a deep polarisation between the 'Turk' and 'Pathan' Muslims, was a pointer to the BJP wading into murky waters and muddying it all the more.

The Samajwadi Party's Sambhal MP Ziaur Rahman Barq is a 'Turk' and he is in a deep hole of his own making. Barq has three FIRs lodged against him, including one for allegedly instigating violence in Sambhal, which led to “five Pathan deaths” and over 20 people sustaining injuries. And another FIR for allegedly being the ringleader of a gang of electricity-thieves.

The Allahabad High Court on January 3 granted a stay on his arrest but refused to strike down the FIR. It also ordered Barq to present himself before the ‘IO’ in the cases whenever summoned or else be ready to face arrest. Barq is helpless and going the way of Azam Khan, who had been left to fend for himself ever since Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath went after him with a vengeance.

So, what’s been happening with the Yogi ever since Sambhal broke out in mindless violence? The simple story is post-November 24, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is unbeatable. Sambhal is the Yogi's 'baby' and the uncertainty dogging him in the aftermath of the humiliating "Lok Sabha defeat" has disappeared, gone 'kaput'.

There is no challenger left in the field and there won't be till the assembly elections of 2027, which is most worrying for Akhilesh Yadav, who had set his eyes on the 2027 elections for making a comeback. Sambhal shouldn't have happened, but it happened, which is unfortunate for Akhilesh Yadav, for 'PDA', for the Samajwadi Party and for the Congress; for the INDI-Alliance, too.

The fate of Member of Parliament Ziaur Rahman Barq, who is facing tough sections of the BNS, is indication that politicians can no longer get away with throwing their weight around. The UP Chief Minister has sworn to make an example of Barq, which is a direct challenge to Barq’s protector and mentor, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav.

The fate of the Shahi Jama Masjid of Sambhal, an ASI-protected monument, also lies in the balance with the matter in the Supreme Court after AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, pitting himself as a "rehnuma" of the "musalman', filed a petition in the apex court, quoting verse and chapter of the contentious Places of Worship Act, 1991 and the Waqf Act.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath "cleverly" did not breach the Places of Worship Act, 1991 when his administration dug up Sambhal to unearth long buried Hindu gods including those that the Yadavs venerated. What galls the 'secular' is the upper-hand gained by the kowtowing Hindus, of not just Sambhal, but the "disease like Dengue and Malaria" has spread to Bareli, Varanasi and other places of Uttar Pradesh.

Sambhal, along with the upcoming 'Mahakhumb' in Prayagraj, is a sign of the times, and of the rejuvenation of the 'Sanatan', a metamorphosis of the ecosystem, which political parties and politicians can only ignore at their own peril. (IPA Service)