Author: – Akash Dey Bhowmick, a student at St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata
BACKGROUND / ORIGIN:
With the much awaited and long-deliberated ‘center of attraction’ Ram Mandir getting constructed in Ayodhya, the saffron party of India, BJP anticipated a sweeping, easy and cruising victory in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad constituency which includes Ayodhya in the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections of 2024.
However, things took a rather awry turn in reality when the BJP fell short of its goal in the constituency despite raising and inaugurating the Ram temple in Ayodhya back in January, 2024 just in time to carry on its ripple effect on to the Lok Sabha election that was due to commence from April onwards of the same year.
The ripple effects did get carried on but unexpectedly not in favour of BJP as they have wanted it to be since they lost to Samajwadi Party.
Awadhesh Prasad of Samajwadi Party who has been a nine-time MLA defeated two-time BJP MP Lallu Singh in the Faizabad constituency by over 55,000 votes.
In the words of local journalists hailing out of Ayodhya, the defeat of BJP might be solely surprising to the BJP and the ones who are uninformed of Ayodhya’s chequered history. The local journalists further state that given Ayodhya’s sensitivity, whoever whenever has in any way tried to exploit Lord Ram, they have always suffered defeat and the BJP became no exception.
Following the temple consecration ceremony at Ayodhya’s Ram Temple which was attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, BJP-led state governments arranged for free travel for devotees to Ram Temple to bolster their chances of winning the Parliamentary election that was just around the corner at that time.
However, there seemed to be a grave misfiring in BJP’s calculations. It came in the form of certain ill-measured steps taken by them, firstly it was their act of dispossessing the residents of Ayodhya by partly or completely demolishing their houses for the construction of the Ram Path leading up to the Ram Mandir. The residents who were dispossessed and were stripped off their properties were not properly compensated and even the lands which were allotted to them, they were not given the necessary legal rights that they required to have over them. Moreover, the BJP’s plans to turn Ayodhya into a world-class climate-smart city has left the residents living in a constant fear of being displaced further at any time without any notice simply in the name of beautification.
Furthermore, the over-emphasis on Ram Mandir and the shrouding of the demolition of other heritage temples such as the Janki Shukla Mandir, Dashrath Mahal which was at one point considered as the birthplace of Ram too simply for the sake of enhancing the grandeur and stature of the Ram Mandir did not go down well with the general public at large.
LEGAL AGENDA:
BJP’s legal agenda for India has been through the process of enacting legislation to implement its vision and goal towards a more centralised, a tighter-gripped terrorism control, a family oriented and a proudly Hindu state.
Some landmark legal steps that the BJP took came in the form of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, the replacement of the age old Indian Penal Code (IPC) with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) or the Indian Justice Code, the enforcement of the Uniform Civil Code Bill in Uttarakhand, the growing momentum on the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 and the Gyanvapi Mosque.
The Modi government revoked the autonomy and special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir through the abrogation of Article 370. It was done to uphold the signature policy of the government, a step that the BJP has always promised to take to effectuate its motive of strengthening the powers of the central government. This carried with it the intention to realise BJP’s aim of an India where no state or subdivision in India will have a greater autonomy than any other state. No state is to have an autonomy that is not in tandem with the central government.
BJP brought in the UCC i.e. the Uniform Civil Code as a test case for BJP to gauge the success of it before replicating the same in other states at the national level. It was a mixed bag of modernisation and traditionalism where the former modernisation aspect was demonstrated through the provisions of the code stood applied across all religious groups and gender wherein both the spouses in a marriage were put in the same position to show identical reasons for seeking a divorce including that of adultery and no one of the two were to have any kind of upper-hand over the other thereby neutralising the effect of polygamy, child marriage and triple talaq; the latter traditionalism aspect of the bill related to the envisioning of relationships through the strengthening of pillars of social stability and customs which the government ultimately looks to nourish more. It has brought in mandates such as the need to register live-in relationships within a month of commencement, informing the parents of children who are under 21 years about the nature and existence of the relationship.
Lastly, BJP’s stance on the Gyanvapi mosque to re-establish the Kashi Vishwanath Temple which has originally been there has raised the legal question whether the Hindus can construct a temple in place of a mosque. The literal and strict interpretation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 completely forbids the bare idea even that the BJP seems to be breeding in their mind. The Act explicitly bars the conversion of religious places of worship to those of any other religion with the objective of maintaining religious peace in the country.
CONCLUSION:
In order to fulfil the legal agenda which BJP has; they mostly have a four-headed way. The first way is always to go for the amendment or abolition of the act. The second alternative remains in smart use of loopholes and alternative interpretation of acts. For instance, Section 4(3)(a) of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act states that it does not apply to any historical monument or an archaeological site that serves to be a place of worship but at the same time does mention that the Act carries with it the application to protect the religious character of a particular place and when the Gyanvapi mosque is looked at through that prism then the BJP’s attempt to reinstate the original Hindu character of the mosque seems valid, logical and essentially legal. The third possibility remains open through potent litigation to challenge the constitutionality of certain acts. Fourthly and finally is the most likely way of indulging in judicial interpretation and framing case laws to get a favourable language of law for their interests.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
- What is the main ideology of BJP?
Ans: Although the official ideology of BJP reads integral humanism, its practices revolve around largely right-wing beliefs. It is an advocate of conservatism and nationalistic principles.
- What are the aims of BJP?
Ans: The aims of BJP pertain to the ‘motherland’, ‘heritage and culture of the land’ and ‘national aspirations of the people of the land’
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