RJD sticks to ‘core ideology’ in shunning Ram Temple event, lets second-rung leaders take fight to BJP

Back in October 1990, Lalu, then in his first term as Bihar CM, had ordered his police to arrest BJP leader L K Advani in Samastipur, while he was carrying out his Rath Yatra for the temple from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, leaving several incidents of violence in its wake.

This singular action, which had brought down the V P Singh-led Janata Dal government in the Centre as the BJP had withdrawn support to it, had helped Lalu consolidate a Muslim-Yadav vote base, that has held the test of time.

The Muslims were anyway looking for an alternative to the Congress, due to their anger over the Bhagalpur riots the year before under the tenure of Congress CM Satyendra Narayan Sinha.

The Assembly elections in 1990 suggested that the shift in the Muslim votes from the Congress to the Janata Dal led by Lalu in the state, almost lock, stock and barrel. Since then, Lalu and the RJD have centred their politics around social justice and secularism. While Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu’s son and current Deputy CM, added “economic justice” to it by promising 10 lakh jobs during the 2020 Assembly polls, the RJD has stuck to its core ideology. Now, amid the huge build-up to the Ram Temple opening, the RJD remains true to it.

While Lalu and Tejashwi have been careful not to join the issue, the party’s second-rung leaders have been speaking out against the politics around it. State Education Minister Chandrashekhar — who in 2022 triggered a row by criticising the Ramcharitmanas in a veiled attempt at polarisation along the “backward-versus-forward” line — on Sunday defended fellow RJD MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh, an OBC Kushwaha leader, for calling “temples a sign of servile mentality”. Chandrashekhar also called the Ram Temple a “site of exploitation to fill pockets”. He added, “Lord Ram lives in each one of us and everywhere. There is no need to go anywhere or in any temple to find Lord Ram.”

Asked about the Ram Temple, Tejashwi last week said, “Why does the media ask only about the Ayodhya temple? We have been making largescale appointments. Let there be talk about employment generation. As for temples, I visited Tirupati Balaji recently. We also have a temple at home.”

Lalu has also visited several temples in Bihar and Jharkhand in the last three months, seen as a move to blunt the BJP’s constant attacks aagainst the RJD over “Muslim appeasement”.

RJD spokesperson Mehta told The Indian Express, “We respect all religions and do not need a certificate on religious faith from the BJP… Everyone understands the BJP’s motive behind creating too much hype around the temple opening. They have been trying to seek sharp polarisation along religious lines to win elections. Our opposition can never be against a temple, but we are surely against the politics of the temple.”

BJP spokesperson Neeraj Kumar, however, called the RJD’s defence of the Congress and decision to skip the consecration event “an insult to Sanatan Dharma”. “The way RJD leaders have been speaking against deities, if the RJD respects Sanatan and Ram, why does it not censure its leaders for calling the temple a symbol of servility? As they have run out of any sound issues before the Lok Sabha polls, they have started attacking Lord Ram.”