Prime Minister Narendra Modi with BJP president Amit Shah during the BJP National Convention at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi on January 12, 2019. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)
The Government’s Ayodhya petition in the Supreme Court Tuesday asking for the return of “superfluous” land betrays the pressure it is under to deliver or show a “tangible” movement towards the construction of the Ram temple. More so, in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections and shortly after the party lost Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Indeed, at the BJP meeting held on January 11-12 in New Delhi, the mood in the cadre was distinctly down until the temple issue came up when enthusiasm was palpable.
Not just the January meeting, at the BJP parliamentary party meeting held on December 19, a week after the party’s debacle in three key states, MPs from Uttar Pradesh raised questions over the delay in temple construction. Earlier, RSS Sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat had twice, during his Vijayadashami address and his speech at Dharam Sabha organised by the VHP in Nagpur, publicly asked the government to “clear the path for construction of the grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law.”
“There had to be some action from the government to energise the cadre across the country and satisfy the Sangh Parivar,” said a senior BJP functionary.
source: The Indian Express