Sunita Aron
Uttar Pradesh may see a resurgence in religiosity with a flood of activities planned around three major shrines in Ayodhya, Kashi (Varanasi) and Mathura that have been on the agenda of the Sangh Parivar, which has been demanding what it sees as the liberation of the places associated with Ram, Shiva and Krishna, for decades.
Ayodhya will not reverberate with cries of Jai Shri Ram on December 6, the anniversary of the demolition of the Badri masjid at the Ram Janmabhoomi site, as all celebrations by Hindus and mourning by Muslims were dropped after the Supreme Court verdict in 2019 that paved the way for the construction of a grand Ram temple at Ram’s birthplace. But a tense Mathura will see the police on high alert, marching on the streets of the holy city to thwart any attempt to create disturbance in the temple area.
Reminiscent of the beginning of the Ram temple movement in Ayodhya, some organisations, including the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, have given a call for “jalabhishek” on December 6 at Lord Krishna’s birthplace, which they claim is inside the Shahi Eidgah, the mosque that shares its boundary with the adjoining Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi. Meanwhile, Varanasi will be preparing the mega opening of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 13.
It isn’t that December 6 will go unmarked.
Ayodhya-based Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesman Sharad Sharma said, “The work on the construction of the (Ram) temple is gaining momentum and by March, we will be in a position to showcase its splendour. Some may light diyas (earthen lamps) on December 6 .”
Soon after, the three-day mega show at Kashi will begin. Conceptualised along the lines of Ayodhya’s kar seva, the organisers of the three-day mega show are ensuring public participation by lighting of diyas and decorating the city. People have been told to illuminate their homes, hotels and shops.
That planned display is making some Muslims nervous.
One of them, who asked not to be named said: “ The decision to live stream the entire inaugural ceremony to 20,000 temples across the country is bound to build a fervour that the Somnath to Ayodhya yatra of BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani created in the early 1990s. We are keeping our fingers crossed.”
His reference is to Advani’s Rath Yatra, which revived the Bharatiya Janata Party’s fortunes and also gave a boost to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh summed up the plan when he said in Varanasi on December 1: “We are fortunate that we are witness to the construction of a grand temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram (in Ayodhya) and Vishwanath Dham in Varanasi.”
The same day, on December 1, the state’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted, “ Ayodhya, Kashi bhavya mandir nirman jaarihai — Mathura ki tayyari hai. (The construction of grand temples in Ayodhya and Kashi is underway — preparations are on for Mathura).”
His tweet created a storm in political circles with the respective national presidents of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, accusing the BJP of adopting its “time-tested divisive agenda” to cover up what they termed as failures on the development front ahead of the assembly elections in early 2022.
Maurya, toeing the age-old line that temples were not an election issue for the BJP, found support in senior minister Suresh Khanna who said, “Which Hindu won’t want grand temples at our holiest places?” Khanna also took on Akhilesh Yadav, saying, “He calls himself a Krishna bhakt, does he not support the call for a grand temple at his (Krishna’s) birthplace in Mathura?”
Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, 7 million, 70 lakh Shiva devotees used to throng the Kashi Vishwanath temple every year while the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura used to attract 25,000 devotees every day.
Many who struggled their way through the old dirty lanes and by-lanes that led to the Kashi Vishwanath temple are bound to be awestruck by the scale of the grandeur of the KV corridor, an aesthetically pleasing (and functionally efficient) 5.5 lakh square feet of space equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for the devotees.
The religious activities won’t end with the inaugural ceremony. Social media and videos will maintain the hype. Chief ministers and mayors of all BJP-ruled states, who have been invited for the ceremony, will take back not just fond memories but also material for publicity.
Thereafter, the month-long Magh Mela in Prayagraj, starting January 14, will keep the religious flavour alive. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and saints affiliated with it, who always set up their camps at the Mela ground, have repeatedly passed resolutions reiterating their demand for the liberation of places associated with the three Hindu Gods and currently partly occupied by mosques — and some of that can be expected this year too (for Kashi and Mathura)
Will this create communal tension? It’s unlikely that either Varanasi or Ayodhya will see any of that — not after chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s repeated warnings that the days of firing on kar sewaks are over, a reference to police firing in Ayodhya in 1991 by Mulayam Singh Yadav government.
But Mathura is a different story; the call for Jalabhishek in Mathura on December 6 has infuriated the Muslim community.
Congress leader Pradeep Mathur said, “Gradually, small-time Hindu organisations are trying to build up the issue and destroy the communal harmony that prevails in the city. Though both Hindus and Muslims understand their ulterior motives, of late, the attendance at Friday prayers in mosques has risen.”
According to him, the wall dividing the mosque and the temple is often referred to as a wall of love and communal harmony, which he believes no one can break.
“ They don’t have local support,” he added, referring to the groups trying to hype up the issue. But the entire Ayodhya movement was fought without much local support.