Nation breathed the sigh of relief as the proposed Ramdarshan and Ram Sankalp Sabha of VHP-Sangh Parivar ended in a whimper (17th October). The menacing postures of the leadership of VHP sent a shiver down the spine of peace loving countrymen. We witnessed with horror the VHP 'hero'  Dr. Praveen bhai Togadia threatening the communal violence in case kar sevaks, nay Ram sevaks and Ram Bhaktas, are stopped on their way to the 'devotional' journey. We witnessed with horror that despite the threat of communal violence Dr. Togadia was not put behind the bars, which is routinely done to any one threatening social peace. But of course all the criminals are not equal as regularly demonstrated by the progenitor of Ram temple movement, the current home minister, the Sangh proclaimed reincarnation of Sardar Patel, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani.

The whole episode was very revealing. Various aspects of the current dynamics came to surface. How are the timings of such darshans, sankalps calculated? In one of the talk shows when a top VHP functionary (B.P.Singhal) was questioned as to how such overt manifestations of Rambhakti take place just before proposed elections, he aggressively retorted that if 'we' benefit on electoral ground from a particular tactic why we should not use it. So the last curtain in the Rambhakti is being unveiled from the proponents of temple itself. Temple agitation is not a religious movement, it is a political movement. The basics have been made clear for us by the horses themselves and for this we do not need the interpretations of 'pseudo secularists' any longer. So as and when elections are announced one can visualize the meter of Rambhakti breaking the upper barriers and surge of this 'devotional' issue reaching its acme.

As a run up to the event, the VHP demanded that no restrictions should be put on the Ram Bhaktas, to Ayodhya, the war zone of electoral battle. Not many will recall that Ayodhya as such means a zone free from wars. But since 92-93 Ayodhya has been converted into a place where initially the mosque was razed to ground and the Muslims families were butchered and the biggest insult was hurled on the principles of Lord Ram whose regime is supposed to be having an atmosphere in which, the subjects were free from physical and mental agony. Currently as UP is being ruled by Mulayam Singh Yadav, who earlier has handled this type of agitation and restricted its dangerous portents, there was already a fear in the minds of Sangh leadership that he may repeat same performance. So quick came the advice from the PM and DPM that VHP should be trusted for its peaceful agitation. This was the same time that Dr. Togadia was wielding his trishuls and showing its sharpest piercing edges to the fearful minorities and Nation as a whole. Mr. Advani and Mr. Vajapayee both ran to the rescue of their co-parivar members by advising Mulayam that VHP is trustworthy, essentially in the Orwellian sense. The terms are being given new meanings, notwithstanding the memories of Babri demolition when similar promises were made in front of National integration council by the then BJP Govt. of UP. VHP and its affiliates have blood on their hand and right from Babri demolition to Pastor Stains burning to Gujarat riots the role of VHP hate campaign and the association of its members in organizing these events is obvious to all. It is more obvious to Advani-Vajpayee duo and that's perhaps why they currently are providing all sorts of umbrellas to their associates.

At every stage of the agitation the turn out was much below the expected number and some times one feels that the Ram Temple issue is following the law of diminishing returns. Even VHP-RSS is not sure so they have to keep trying and assessing the political worth of such issues. It's probably for this that such agitations are being supplemented by Gujarat type of anti-Minority pogroms to keep the electoral appeal at the winning level. Any way, mercifully Mulayamï's strategy paid and the event, which had the potential of creating a serious disturbance, ended as a damp squib. The Bharat bandh call given by Mr. Singhal is an index of the frustration at the failure of this campaign.

In the whole melee raised by VHP, one important point got missed out. What do the people of Ayodhya think of the whole issue? In a different forum in which the Mahants of Ayodhya, like Mahant Bhavnath and Madhavacharya who met as a group, Ayodhya ki Awaz, appealed that they want peace and harmony in Ayodhya and are opposed to Ram temple agitation. They also called the bluff of Mr. Ashok Singhal that the Ram Darshan has been planned in consultation with Mahants. They pointed out that no decision could be reached at the meeting and later Mr. Singhal announced, on his own that the Sants have taken such a decision. In a sense the VHP is an imposition on the Hindu society, not its representative body in any sense of the word. It has been milking the electoral cow of Ayodhya for its parent organization RSS and its electoral brother the BJP. At surface they keep threatening each other but it is a make believe boxing as all the wings of Sangh Parivar are following the complimentary aspects of the politics which they think will lead to the formation of Hindu Rashtra. It is more than clear that apart from the Muslims, the average person of Ayodhya is the biggest victim in the divisive politics being played by VHP. The life at Ayodhya has changed for worse since the Sangh Parivar has discovered that its chariot, rath, for power can go through the temple in Ayodhya. Today Hindus of Ayodhya and nearby places are as much a victim of the Hindu Rashtra politics as the minorities are. Every time the VHP launches agitation, the life in Ayodhya gets disrupted and the business comes down. The local sants have special reason to be annoyed as they have been used to seeing the amity of Muslims and Hindus, and this is always a casualty in the programs undertaken by the Hindutva politics.

So where does the solution to the Ayodhya dispute lie? Shankracharya of Kanchi Kampitham has reiterated his appeal that Muslims should hand over the Babri site to VHP. Will that solve the problem? If we go to the roots it is clear that Ayodhya is not a religious or devotional issue. One remembers poet saint Tulsidas who when banished from the Ram Temple for the sin of writing Ramayan in Lokbhasha (avadhi), violating the law of Brahmins that they should only be using Devbhasha, Sanskrit, went on to write in his autobiography, Vinay Chritavali, that he lives in a mosque. The real devotion and spitrituality does not require a physical structure. This is a constructed political issue, which has been raising the emotional tempest and mobilizing the gullible sections of society, who are used as a cannon fodder for BJP-VHP politics. The suggestion that Muslim bodies should surrender the place to buy peace, while noble (and one sided) in its intention is not likely to solve the problem as VHP in reality is not for temple. Its prime aim is to keep using the issues, which can arouse the emotions of section of Hindus to make them feel that VHP-BJP stands for the interests of Hindus. Even if the offer of Ram temple site is made to VHP, within a day they will jump to Kashi and Mathura and than a long list of 2000 odd temples are waiting in the queue. The issues like Bhoj Shala, Baba Budan Giria, as odd church in Kerala are mere symptoms of the political psychology, which wants to keep digging the harmonious roots of the society to keep baking the bread of its political ambitions.

One is not sure how long they can use the temple issue to mobilize the people as the failure of expected response to the present campaign clearly demonstrates. In that case the threats of Togadias to start the riots is the other armamentarium in the hands of champions of Saffron agenda. The solution, though complex has to be sought at the political level. The retrograde political gambits of Sangh parivar have to be defeated at political and social level. The social consciousness, which has been doctored against the minorities, against secularism, against composite nationalism and plural ethos has to be fought against. The political canvass has to be brought back to the real problems of the society, those of bread butter and shelter, to make sure that the emotion based campaigns, hate based ideology and politics with anti-democratic agenda of Sangh Parivar is defeated in a comprehensive way. How can secular forces stand up to defeat this politics is a million lives question!