ON the rubble of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, a gleaming new Ram mandir is being built, and is scheduled to be opened publicly in January 2024. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to the opening ceremony, and if past precedent is followed, he will attend. After all, Mr Modi was present at the mandir’s ground-breaking in 2020, observing that the day was as significant as India’s independence day. This hidebound view is understandable — for the Sangh Parivar, the mosque’s demolition and later the construction of the mandir after the Indian supreme court ruled in favour of building the temple, marks the birth of a ‘new’ India. This fabled land of the Sangh’s dreams will be a place where a new Vedic golden age will dawn, where all those outside the ideological fold — especially Muslims and other minorities — will be put in their place. Dangerous signs of what the ‘new’ India will look like are already apparent, with the lynchings of Muslims, the bulldozing of their homes, the questioning of their citizenship status, and the torching of churches. The consecration of the Ram mandir is, in fact, a victory rally for the Sangh, and will mark the fulfilment of a major campaign promise of the BJP. It will also be politically convenient for Mr Modi to attend the temple opening as polls are due in India next year.

The Ram mandir issue illustrates the two-faced nature of the BJP and the Sangh. At the recent Delhi G20 summit, we saw Mr Modi the globalist, aspiring to be the voice of the Global South. But in Ayodhya, we will see Mr Modi the communalist, channelling the pracharak within, and working overtime to build the Bharat of RSS’s dreams. The demolition of the mosque marked the beginning of the end of India’s secular democracy. The consecration of the mandir will be a grim milestone in the country’s transformation into a rashtra.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2023