Ram temple at Ayodhya: Hindutva organisations on the back-foot

For the time being the BJP and the RSS will have to keep the Ram Temple confined to the courts

Having raised the controversial Ram Temple issue to fever-pitch, suddenly the temple agitation has been ‘postponed’ till after the elections by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its mother organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Ostensibly the VHP does not want the Ram Temple to become a ‘petty election issue’.

This seems to defy logic because the Ram Temple issue has always been raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in election season in the hope that by polarising the electorate, it will encourage the majority community to line up behind the party.

This time also, Prime Minister Modi and BJP president