Carrying the Ayodhya pennant, Narendra Modi goes where no PM has gone before, leaves a hard act to follow

In January 2019, inaugurating the BJP’s national convention in Delhi, Amit Shah, then the party’s national president, had termed the April-May 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a battle of ideologies, saying that a loss for the party in it could lead to “slavery” — comparing it to what happened after the Third Battle of Panipat in the 18th century, which the Marathas lost, eventually paving the way to British rule.

The BJP won that election with a thumping majority, with Narendra Modi taking charge as the Prime Minister for the second consecutive term.

Five years later, last Friday, PM Modi announced that he was undertaking a “special ritual of 11 days” to prepare himself for the “pran pratishtha (consecration ceremony)” of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya to be held on January 22.

In the coming days, the Ayodhya event and the fervour being whipped up around it by the Sangh Parivar across the country would not only sound the BJP’s bugle for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but also underline its agenda of cultural nationalism.

Leading this exercise from the front, Modi has pushed the Opposition to the back foot. Struggling to come up with ideas to counter Modi, Opposition parties have been searching for issues and narratives, and the Lok Sabha polls would be one more such stage.

Interestingly, amid the prevailing upbeat mood in the BJP over the party reigning largely unchallenged nationally and in the Hindi heartland for a decade, a section of its leaders feels that the party’s identity as an “ideology-based democratic organisation” should also be protected to enable it to stand on its own in the future. As of now, it is the Modi juggernaut that is rolling on everywhere, with party leaders admitting that the PM has become synonymous for their