Narendra Modi uses inauguration of a grand Hindu temple to launch his re-election campaign
The building of the temple was rushed so that it would be ready ahead of India's next general election, Asia Correspondent Debi Edward reports
If the lines between religion and politics had become blurred in India, on Monday, Narendra Modi will re-paint them with saffron clarity.
The prime minister is using the inauguration of a grand Hindu temple to launch his re-election campaign.
The 73-year-old will take centre stage at the ceremony to celebrate the consecration of a huge religious site in Ayodhya which has been mired in decades of disputes between Hindus and Muslims, both believing the ground to be their own.
The scene in Ayodhya, India, where the inauguration of a grand Hindu temple will take place as Modi launches his re-election campaign
It is a temple dedicated to Lord Ram, the most revered of Hindu Gods, but it is Narendra Modi who is positioning himself as almost a modern-day God, in a Hindu dominant nation.
Like many strongmen leaders, since he took office, Modi has been obsessed with his legacy.
This temple is one of his biggest vanity projects to date and one which he hopes will cement his place in the mind of voters as not just the one of India’s greatest leaders, but Hindu leaders, of all time.
India has a secular constitution and there are strict campaign rules which should prevent religion from entering the political domain, but the current prime minister has shown little regard for the constitution and during his decade in power has steadily prioritised Hindutva.
It is a political ideology based on Hindu nationalism and Modi’s political statements include the thinly veiled message that India is a country for Hindus.
By using the Ram Temple as the unofficial launch pad for his 2024 election campaign Modi is showing the direction in which the country would take during his third term.
Even some prominent Hindu leaders have boycotted the temple inauguration, showing their displeasure with the prime minister so blatantly hijacking religion for political gain.
The prime minister rushed building work on the temple in order for it to be ready ahead of the election.
He has encouraged Hindus to visit temples and celebrate the auspicious occasion by lighting lamps at home and in shrines to symbolise the ‘’cultural, spiritual and social unity’’ of the nation.
In towns and cities around India, the streets have been lined with saffron-coloured flags which are the symbol of Hindu nationalism.
There are live screenings of the event in Ayodhya planned across the country and even a stamp of Lord Ram has been released to mark the occasion.
In 1992, a group of Hindu extremists stormed the grounds of what was then the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and destroyed the 16th century mosque.
It triggered violence which spread around the country and an estimated two thousand people, mostly Muslim, were killed.
It was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which first started the campaign for the removal of the mosque, but it was Modi, after rising to power on a wave of Hindu revivalism in 2014, who promised to build the Ram Temple and return the land to Hindus once and for all.
A supreme court ruling in 2019 gave approval for building, despite no evidence of any original Hindu temple on that site.
Building began in 2020, and Modi was criticised for pushing ahead with the ground-breaking in August of that year as the country battled with the Covid-19 pandemic which was claiming hundreds of lives every day.
The images generated from the Ayodyha inauguration on Monday will be used by the BJP for election propaganda.
The cult-driven agenda of Narendra Modi will have new material to promote him as a national icon - in a nation where Muslims fear they are no longer welcome.
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