Rajasthan temple row: Last time, it was Raje in the dock, as RSS flung barbs like ‘Aurangzeb’

The demolition of the temples hastened Raje down a collision course with the RSS. While most of the temples were demolished under the district administration’s drive against illegal structures, in line with Supreme Court orders, it was the demolition and relocation of six temples in the Walled City, to make way for Jaipur Metro, that apparently was the tipping point.

The six temples — Rameshwar Mahadev Mandir, Kanwal Saheb Hanuman Mandir, Barah Ling Mahadev Mandir, Shri Bad Ke Balaji Mandir, Rozgareshwar Mahadev Mandir and Kashtharan Mahadev Mandir (the last two apparently over two centuries old — were shifted from Chhoti Chaupar to Old Atish Market.

In July 2015, the RSS called the Raje government’s attitude “worse than that of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb” and summoned nine BJP MLAs to its headquarters in Bharati Bhawan in Jaipur, asking them to explain their “inaction” over the demolition.

Backing a ‘Mandir Bachao Sangharsh Samiti’, the RSS and its affiliates also called a two-hour “chakka jam”, amidst other steps. The Sangh’s Vivek Gupta argued: “Mandir toote hain… samaj mein aakrosh hai… Aur Sangh bhi to samaaj se hee bana hai (Temples have been demolished, there is anger in the society… And the Sangh is not separate from society).”

Those close to Vasundhara Raje contested that the RSS was just using the issue to target the CM, who had a standing independent of the Sangh and had never submitted to it. “People have not really protested against the demolition of these temples. If they had, the administration would not have been able to carry out the exercise with such ease in the first place. The Sangh has found a ready opportunity to take on Raje,” a BJP leader had told The Indian Express then.

The Congress too had largely taken a backseat in the protests over the demolition, letting the BJP fight its internal wars. However, close to the 2018 elections, the party had fallen back on the row. In a speech in August 2018, then state Congress president Sachin Pilot had claimed that over 300 temples were demolished in the state capital for the construction of the Metro corridor, while accusing the BJP “of doing politics with temples at the centre”. Pilot had also alleged that some of the idols had sustained damages in the process of shifting of the temples, and that many had been stolen.

Incidentally, Raje was not very keen on the Jaipur Metro, having said early on in her second tenure as CM in late 2013 that it would be a loss-making venture. At the inauguration of the Metro line in June 2015 too, her ambivalence had been clear. She could not ignore the palpable excitement of first-time commuters and party workers at the inaugural run, but reiterated that the Metro’s design of the 9.63 km corridor was “flawed” and hampered the “beauty of the historic city”.

“Usually Metros are planned in such a manner that it enhances the beauty of the city, but unfortunately that did not happen here. We will see how this can be rectified and the beauty of the city be restored,” she had said.

Raje might appreciate the irony of the row surfacing now, ahead of the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly elections. Relegated to cold storage by an only too happy BJP leadership after the 2018 Assembly poll loss, Raje has only now started making her way back. One of her strategies has been to take on a strident Hindutva line, from temples to focusing on ‘Dharma Neeti’, to “fit in”.