On Sabarimala and Ayodhya, BJP willing to court contempt of court to stoke communal fires

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the absence of "achhey din", the BJP has had no option but to turn to its standard formula aimed at consolidating the Hindu voters – the "core" section of the communal-minded as well as the generally conservative groups – by playing the temple card.

Hence, note the intensity of the pleas for beginning the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya even when the issue is pending before the Supreme Court with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat calling for an ordinance on the subject.

But since the government has been hesitant lest it annoys the Supreme Court, the BJP has decided to make full use of the Sabarimala issue although this, too, involves an indirect criticism of the Supreme Court.

However, such legal impediments are unlikely to deter the party when it feels that the raising of religious fervour is the only way to overcome the government's inability to keep its promise of vikas. So, even as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, keeps up the pressure on Ayodhya, the BJP will try to use the Sabarimala issue to gain political mileage.

In doing so, it has carefully avoided the question of women's rights and emphasised the adherence to tradition by the devotees, which bars the entry of women of a reproductive age into the temple. In addition, BJP president Amit Shah has an advice for the judiciary – do not pass orders which cannot be implemented.

This time, the party hasn't gone as far as it did in the 1990s when it used to say that the courts can have no say in a matter of faith. Perhaps the BJP has realised that such obstinacy detracts from its commitment to the constitutional system at a time when a Union minister wants oaths to be taken on the Vedas and not in the name of God or by affirming "true faith" in the Constitution.

The BJP must be also aware that there is no immediate prospect of either building the Ayodhya temple or a judicial review of the Sabarimala judgment to its satisfaction. But what it wants is to keep the two issues alive in order to raise the communal temperature, which will fit in nicely with its anti-Muslim agenda whose cornerstone at present is the National Register of Citizens with its listing of real and fake citizens.

At the same time, the BJP is keen on avoiding a major communal flare-up – it is not concerned about minor ones – in case it revives memories of the 2002 Gujarat riots or the outbreaks after the Babri masjid demolition in 1992 lest they further deter investors.