Who
gained what from the failed ‘84 Kosi Yatra’ is a debatable issue. On surface,
it seems it failed. But then given the lackadaisical attitude of Uttar Pradesh
voters on Ram Temple
And
going by that, this experiment to rake-up religious sentiments on
electoral lines in the name of the Ram Temple issue has been a successful
effort, for the ‘unprecedented’ hurry of the Samajwadi Party government in UP
to look and sound pro-Muslim pushed for an unprecedented security blanket across
the state that made an otherwise dull (and
avoidable) event a talking
point across the whole nation for almost a week.
That
was the mileage sought and it was extracted efficiently. It was tried as an
effort to rebuild a perception, of reigniting the electoral importance of
Ayodhya’s Ram Temple
That is
exactly the purpose of such exercises – gradually ramping up the support by
gradually raking up an issue that has the ‘potential’ (electorally) but no longer serves the purpose.
That
might be the thinking behind launching a Yatra like this ’84 Kosi Yatra’. It
could well be one of the many steps that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and its
ideological partners and affiliates, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) and
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), would be working on in the days to come to
maximize their chances in the upcoming assembly and parliamentary elections.
Such
steps fit in the overall grand strategy of projecting Narendra Modi as the
National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) prime-ministerial nominee.
It is
not to be doubted that, once given a ‘push’, the polarising power of Narendra
Modi to polarise the Hindu votes on religious lines is charismatic.
So, be
prepared for more. Modi is on the job. He is going to address four rallies in
UP in October.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
