In message on Ram Temple, PM Modi includes faith, labharthi, caste and infra push

Modi’s message

PM Modi’s message seemed to be Hindutva-plus. As world-class infrastructure is built in Ayodhya, the temple town would see a convergence of tradition and modern vikas (development), which from the ruling BJP’s viewpoint is a must for a country’s “national greatness”.

Before addressing a public meeting in the presence of UP Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union ministers like Jyotiraditya Scindia and General V K Singh, and a host of UP ministers, PM Modi inaugurated the Ayodhya Dham Railway Station and the Maharshi Valmiki International Airport in the temple town.

‘New Ayodhya in new India’

In their speeches, PM Modi and CM Adityanath made it clear that Ayodhya is set to witness a massive infrastructural facelift that would make it an entirely new town. Added to the religious significance of Ayodhya town as the site of the Ram Temple is the “new Ayodhya” being developed by the BJP dispensation at the Centre and in the state to showcase a global hub of tradition, spirituality and modern amenities. The PM Saturday inaugurated projects worth more than Rs 15,000-crore in Ayodhya.

The railway station – where Modi flagged off India’s first two Amrit Bharat trains and six Vande Bharat trains – and the airport have a similar colour tone as the Ram Temple, thus providing a seamless religious experience to pilgrims.

The small town is set to see massive expansion in the coming years, as many plots for hotels have reportedly been earmarked, apart from the setting up of several shopping complexes and multiple facilities for pilgrims.

Ideological fruition

The optics of the occasion – beamed live on TV channels – seemed to bring to visual fruition an ideological project that the BJP and other RSS-affiliated organisations had pursued for decades.

“If any country wants to develop, it has to protect its heritage. We are moving forward with the old and the new. Once, Ram Lalla was in a tent in Ayodhya. Today, pucca houses are there not only for Ram Lalla but 4 crore people… Today is Pragati ka utsav for Ayodhya; a few days later there will be parampara ka utsav here (today is a festival of development for Ayodhya; some days later there will be a festival of tradition here,” Modi said.

Highlighting that Ayodhya would give direction to the development of the whole of UP and not just Awadh region, the PM added: “We are undertaking thousands of crores of development; it is being made smart. Roads are being widened, flyovers are coming up. New means of transportation are coming to Ayodhya.”

Modi underlined that December 30 was also the day when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose hoisted the tricolour in the Andaman and Nicobar Island in 1943, thus making the day special.

CM Adityanath said that Modi had come to inaugurate the “new Ayodhya of new India”, noting that the temple town was undergoing a visual transformation. He added that Ayodhya has a state-of-the-art railway station and an international airport, and would now be connected with eight-lane highways.

Social balancing

Significantly, even as the Ram Temple underlines a powerful cultural symbolism, especially because of the long legal dispute following which the Temple came up through a Supreme Court judgment, the choice of the name of Valmiki – considered the first author of Ramayana, the epic of Lord Ram – for the airport is significant as a section of the Scheduled Castes (SC) revere Valmiki and identify their community with his name. The symbolism thus also has an aspect of the Dalit outreach, linking the Ram Temple movement with an egalitarian social pitch.

The PM, significantly, also visited the house of a “labharthi” (beneficiary) Dhani Ram Manjhi, who apparently benefited from the Ujjawala Yojana. Significantly, the choice of the beneficiary for the visit also suggested a strong Dalit outreach – as Manjhis of UP are in the SC list.

Cultural projects

A significant feature of what may be called the grand cultural projects of the BJP under Modi is to change the visual and memorial landscape in the country in a way that his government would be associated with it in history.

The new Parliament building and its “new-look” Sarnath Lion Capital of Emperor Ashoka, the Kartavya Path (earlier Rajpath) and the changing face of parts of Lutyens’ Delhi, the Netaji statue at India Gate, the new Kashi Vishwanath corridor at Varanasi, the Mahakal corridor at Ujjain, and now the new Ayodhya follow a pattern. However, given the fact that Ayodhya has been a small town with lots of open spaces, the new-look town would be visibly different from the old pilgrimage town, thus linking it irrevocably to the Modi government and the BJP.