January 22, 2024, 12.20 pm was a defining moment — the rise of a Ram temple in Ayodhya that many Hindus in India and abroad had been waiting for. January 22 was also a “Modi moment”, about the man who made it possible and it may come to define his leadership, as he spoke of the “kalchakra” now changing, the wheel of time which was now set to turn irrevocably.
A Ram temple in Ayodhya was inevitable and has been in the works after the Supreme Court’s verdict in November 2019 cleared the ground for it to come up at the spot where the demolished Babri Masjid had once stood. Before the verdict, there were several impatient voices within the RSS and the Sangh Parivar who had pressured the government to bring about a law to empower itself to build the temple. But it was Modi who put his political foot down and said he would wait for the court. On Monday, Modi even gave credit to the judiciary for its “nyay” in bringing it about. This legitimised the temple, he suggested, as the result of due process.
There are those who would have wanted the prime minister to be the country’s First Devotee at the consecration ceremony. He chose to do the pran pratishtha of Ram Lalla, performing all the necessary religious rituals — he had been fasting for 11 days on coconut water, sleeping on just a blanket – making an unequivocal statement that he is a Hindu prime minister. (His predecessors had never worn their religious identities at national occasions in this way).
By doing so, Modi, effectively, transformed the temple ceremony into a national occasion, not just a religious event, with sants and religious figures from major Hindu sects, and 7,000 eminent citizens in attendance. In the process, being seen not just as a popular prime minister but as a leader who is positioning himself to acquire a moral — and spiritual — authority as well. He pitched Ram not just as a deity but as an icon of governance and spoke evocatively about Ram representing the “prestige of India”, “nation-building”, and the “solution, not controversy.” He talked feelingly about moving from “Dev” to “Desh” and “Ram to Rashtra” for India’s reconstruction. In a message to those who opposed the temple, he said it was not a “fire” that evoked fear, but “urja”(energy) that needed to be harnessed — and inspire India’s youth.
Every Prime Minister has had moments that defined their premiership and reshaped the contours of the nation — Nehru when he took over as PM and made a “tryst with destiny” on August 15, 1947; Indira Gandhi when she made geopolitical history by carving out the new nation of Bangladesh in 1971; Rajiv Gandhi when he got the locks opened at the disputed Babri Masjid to allow darshan of Ram Lalla who had been smuggled into the mosque in 1949, giving a fillip to Hindu nationalism; Vishwanath Pratap Singh, when he adopted the Mandal report, which made the empowerment of the OBCs an irreversible phenomenon and force in politics and society; PV Narasimha Rao who allowed the Babri Masjid to fall, leading to the rise and rise of the BJP; Rao again who opened the economy to global winds of change; Atal Bihari Vajpayee who put the BJP’s core agenda including “Ayodhya” and the abrogation of Article 370 on the backburner to run a coalition government. And Dr Manmohan Singh who had his way in enacting the Indo-US nuclear deal to forge a new and strategic relationship with the US. This is Modi’s moment.
In 2014, Modi had reverently touched his forehead to the steps of Parliament, which he called a temple of democracy, when he entered the building for the first time, and called the Constitution his only holy book.
On January 22, he made history by consecrating the Ram temple. It was not so much the Prime Minister’s powerful and stirring speech which came as a surprise, for he is an ace communicator with a mass connect. With his words, PM Modi drew a new line — a Ram rekha? — redefining the relationship between the state and religion, flagging off “religious (not just cultural) nationalism” as a force for change. But he also talked about moving towards an inclusive “rashtra” to lay the foundations of a civilisational India for the next “1000 years”.
Where does this leave the minorities, who have accepted the court verdict but feel insecure and beleaguered in an assertive Hindu India? How will Modi’s words be heard at the highest level and heeded by those on the street? Will triumphalism push the boundaries of social discord? Or, will the Sangh Parivar, now that it has attained the long sought after Ram temple, which it saw as an assertion of Hindu identity and a symbol of freedom from “slavery”, now reach out to the “others” in a spirit of reconciliation?
Today, Modi stands on the threshold of a third term in office. If he is victorious, he will be the first non-Congress Prime Minister to make it to a third term, Nehru was the first Congress PM to be elected for three terms. While Modi made history on January 22, what follows in the coming weeks and months, how he steers on the road ahead, could very well decide his place in it.
The writer is contributing editor, The Indian Express and author of How Prime Ministers Decide
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At Ayodhya, PM Modi draws a Ram Rekha
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23.01.2024
January 22, 2024, 12.20 pm was a defining moment — the rise of a Ram temple in Ayodhya that many Hindus in India and abroad had been waiting for. January 22 was also a “Modi moment”, about the man who made it possible and it may come to define his leadership, as he spoke of the “kalchakra” now changing, the wheel of time which was now set to turn irrevocably.
A Ram temple in Ayodhya was inevitable and has been in the works after the Supreme Court’s verdict in November 2019 cleared the ground for it to come up at the spot where the demolished Babri Masjid had once stood. Before the verdict, there were several impatient voices within the RSS and the Sangh Parivar who had pressured the government to bring about a law to empower itself to build the temple. But it was Modi who put his political foot down and said he would wait for the court. On Monday, Modi even gave credit to the judiciary for its “nyay” in bringing it about. This legitimised the temple, he suggested, as the result of due process.
There are those who would have wanted the prime minister to be the country’s First Devotee at the consecration ceremony. He chose to do the pran pratishtha of Ram Lalla, performing all the necessary religious rituals — he had been fasting for 11 days on coconut water, sleeping on just a blanket – making an unequivocal statement that he is a Hindu prime minister. (His predecessors had never worn their religious identities at national occasions in this way).
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