In Yadav belt, Ram temple is a triumph, but demands from govt much more

The market at Kurawali, a small town in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh, is being decked with lights and Shri Ram flags. Ajaypal Singh, 28, from Ashokpur Village adjacent to the town, is beaming with excitement.

Munching peanuts next to a fire to beat the biting cold, Singh says, “People’s faith has been associated with Ram for centuries and, on January 22, decades of tapasya (penance) will come true. For us, under Yogi-Modi, this is Ram Rajya. Post-January 22, all deities will come on Earth, it is our faith.”

Singh and his friends who are fellow Lodhi Rajputs (an OBC caste), say they are happy that the mosque was demolished under the BJP and that the temple is also coming up under the party’s rule.

The Mainpuri-Etawah belt in central UP is regarded as a bastion of the Samajwadi Party (SP), home to its late founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and dominated by Yadavs. Mulayam’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav is currently the MP from Mainpuri. Mainpuri and Etawah districts also have a sizeable population of Lodhi Rajputs and Shakya-Kushwahas – the former being traditional voters of the BJP, and the latter gravitating towards the party under Modi.

In UP politics, if the BJP is the party of the temple, Mulayam is the man under whose rule as chief minister, kar sevaks advancing towards the Ram Janmabhoomi site on October 30 and November 2, 1990, were fired upon, leaving more than 20 dead. Under the BJP government that followed in the state, led by Kalyan Singh, the Babri Masjid was demolished. The BJP wants the people to never forget this, but 30 years down the line, as a new generation takes over, these facts are blurred by history, with the hard line drawn by Mulayam itself faint under the SP’s brush with Hindutva politics.

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