Mandal with Kamandal: Sangh’s ‘second Ram Mandir Andolan’ in all-encompassing Ayodhya guest list

“More than 150 communities will be represented from every district in the country. The list includes a large number of saints from the Dalit and tribal communities. Apart from them, 10 people from the poorest families, who live in huts but contributed Rs 100 for the Ram Mandir Nidhi and workers who constructed the temple are also among the guests. The event is representative of the entire country,” Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Alok Kumar told The Indian Express.

The guest list, which includes 4,000 saints and around 2,500 eminent persons, was prepared in a manner to ensure all sections of the Hindu society, especially the marginalised ones, are adequately represented, sources said, and added that care has been taken to ensure representation of sub-castes too.

The VHP’s plan dovetails into the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s “samajik samrasta (social harmony)” campaign which was launched last year to counter the Opposition’s narrative around caste census. With the Opposition falling back on “Mandal” to take the BJP on, the Sangh is aggressively pushing “Kamandal” to create a narrative of disparate castes in the Hindu society being one.

VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said the main objective of the temple movement was uniting the Hindu society. “When the Shila poojan for the Ram temple was being discussed (in 1984), everyone thought either Jagatguru Shankaracharya or (late international working president of the VHP) Ashokji (Singhal) would perform it. However, Ashokji refused and it was performed by a person from the community for which Lord Ram fought for 14 years. Hence, Kameshwar Chaupalji was chosen,” he said. Chaupal, a Dalit VHP leader, was also picked to lay the foundation stone for the temple in November 1989 at the then disputed site.

The spokesperson said the list of saints too was drawn up with great care. “Though we do not divide saints on the basis of caste, we have to ensure that every community, region and language is represented as we talk of universality of the event. There are those who worship saakar (god with form), those who worship nirakar (god without form), Valmikis, Ravidasis, Arya Samajis, Sanatanis… categories of all communities were created (and then the list drawn up from them),” he said.

The list of eminent personalities was also drawn up with the aim to ensure representation of as many professions as possible and includes politicians, artists, poets, sportspersons, etc. “Among the Padma awardees, care was taken to pick invitees from among those who are considered to have faith in Ram,” he said.

Bansal said representation of all communities is being ensured as all communities made sacrifices during the Ram temple movement. The VHP spokesperson said people across castes contributed, despite economic setbacks during the pandemic, when funds were being collected for the construction of the temple.

The VHP also has elaborate plans to create a national fervour surrounding the inauguration of the temple. According to VHP leaders, an akshat (sacred rice) distribution campaign has already been launched to reach out to Hindus across the world while Sangh workers have fanned out across the country to ensure people from all towns and villages gather in nearby temples to perform an aarti at 12.20 pm on January 22, the same time as Prime Minister Narendra Modi participates in the Pran Prathistha in Ayodhya.

“We have requested everyone – from a small baby in its mother’s lap to a wheelchair-bound grandfather – to be at the nearest temple. Everyone has to watch and actively participate in the ceremony together. We are hoping to bring seven crore people together through five lakh temples. It will be like Diwali and for anyone watching from the sky in the night, it will seem like the sun will never set on India,” Kumar said.

The VHP has roped in Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs), vyapar mandals and other groups to assist it in the installation of five lakh LED screens in temples to enable people to watch the ceremony live.

“We have also asked bigger temples to subsidise smaller ones. We are ensuring people of a village, across caste lines, gather in one temple. This will strengthen mandir samitis,” Bansal said. VHP leaders say that this is an extension of the Sangh’s “one village, one temple, one cremation ground and one well” campaign.

The VHP has also been running a priest training programme across the country for decades. “It has been running extensively in south India. As a part of the campaign, we have trained 50,000 priests from the Dalit and tribal communities and got them appointed in various temples. We have got a lot of support in this endeavour from big temples like the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTDs),” Bansal said.