Opinion: Religion, The Leitmotif Of The 2024 Election

In full-page newspaper ads on the ninth anniversary of the Modi government in late May, there was only a veiled reference to the BJP's Hindutva platform, which is the bedrock of its electoral strategy to win the Hindu vote. It was tucked away innocuously towards the end. Under the last item, titled 'Virasat aur Vikas', mention was made of the "Magnificent Shri Ram Temple being constructed in Ayodhya" and of "Honouring the faith of the people through reconstruction of cultural and spiritual heritage sites".

If heritage sites of faiths other than Hinduism have been reconstructed in the last nine years, they have not been adequately publicised. But the construction of the Ayodhya Ram temple, we all know, is being tightly supervised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's former Principal Secretary, Nripendra Mishra, who is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it is ready for its consecration in January 2024. In tandem, the UP Government has earmarked more than Rs 57,000 crore for making Ayodhya a "world-class" city to coincide with the temple opening. Under feverish construction are an international airport, major revamps of the city's two railway stations and a bus station, and various intra and inter-city roads.

It is worth recalling that the resurgence of the BJP began with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's call nearly 40 years ago of "Mandir wahin banayenge", on which LK Advani mounted his rath yatra of the late 1980s. The campaign gave Narendra Modi a chance to display his organisational skills on a national platform. What impact the grand opening of the Ram Mandir and the consecration of the city as one of Hinduism's eminent religious and cultural icons will have on the Hindu vote can be left to historians to assess, but this much can be said - it will be hugely cathartic for many among the Hindus who make up 80 per cent of the country's population.

Seeking votes on the basis of religion is, of course, banned. But it is increasingly clear that the 2024 general election will see the unprecedented prominence of religion as a backdrop, more so than in any previous election. This, predictably, is largely because the BJP will continue to galvanise the Hindu vote on the Hindutva platform. While established BJP leaders will continue to largely speak the language of Hindu nationalism, its emerging leaders, fringe organisations and troll armies will seek to polarise the Hindu vote with vicious othering. But this is also because the Congress is gearing up to fight Hindutva with its own brand of Hinduism.