With the Supreme Court showing no hurry to dispose of the long-pending Ayodhya case, the Ram Mandir demand is unlikely to be resolved logically anytime soon. And the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership seems to be fully aware of that. No wonder, then, that the party’s effort once again is to raise the ‘mandir’ issue to such a high pitch that its supporters remain in good humour, and shower their votes on the BJP. With 2019 general election around the corner, the BJP along with its ideological mentor RSS and its affiliate organization are up in arms seeking urgent steps to start construction work. RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi on Friday said the organisation will not hesitate to launch an agitation for Ram temple, if needed.
Several BJP and VHP leaders are also putting pressure on centre to bring an ordinance for construction of temple. But big question is why BJP and its associate partners remember Ram temple issue just prior to general election. If they were really serious about it what were they doing for the last 4 and half years? BJP is in power at centre, UP and in majority of states across the country. Despite yielding so much power they never made any serious attempt to push for temple. But as the election nears they are racking up this issue once again just to keep their supporters engaged. This renewed assertion of the party’s apparent commitment to building the temple is expected to buy them time from those sections of the party’s support base that were getting restive about the non-fulfillment of the long-standing promise. After all, people are well aware that the Narendra Modi government did not make any effort to get the case listed in court in the past four years.