Temple and triple talaq

For the past three days, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has held centre stage with its conclave ‘Bhavishya ka Bharat’ (the India of tomorrow). RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has hogged the limelight with statements that run counter to what its political offshoot, the BJP, has been espousing for the last four and a half years. The RSS chief got off the mark by espousing reconciliation and renunciation of past injuries by stating that there could be no Hindu Rashtra without Muslims. On Wednesday, the RSS chief went a step further by proposing that a Ram Temple will put an end to all the differences between the Hindus and Muslims.

The RSS chief is being ingenious and creative, to put it mildly. A cursory glance at the literature spawned by RSS think-tanks including the Sangh Bible — Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts — would quickly indicate the wide divergence between recent statements and the utterances and actions on the ground. The lynchings, the attempt to corner dissenters and leftists and the concerted move to paint them and anyone in the middle as anti-nationalists hardly squares up with the homilies delivered at the conclave. As for Ram Temple -- the biggest attempt at polarisation that has helped the BJP sustain an anti-Muslim narrative for the past 25 years -- surely the RSS chief is not unaware that the matter is hotly contested and sub-judice. Too much blood has flown in the Saryu for it to be settled in the manner of a playground quarrel.  

The BJP, however, gave the game away by its Ordinance on triple talaq. More than helping Muslim women, this was a timely diversion from the economic distress and mismanagement by appearing to be sensitive to the plight of Muslim women. The promises made in 2014 on the economic side — jobs, MSP and crackdown on black money  — will not give similar traction in 2019. Nor is there time or the ability to set things back. The agenda this time is likely to be heavily loaded towards polarisation. And all the talk of temple and triple talaq is a forerunner.