Ahead of Uttar Pradesh elections, BJP returns to 'Jai Sri Ram'

The BJP’s old slogan of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ has returned to warm up the party workers again ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly polls. 

Eight days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the cry at his Dussehra rally in Lucknow, he was greeted with repeated chants of ‘Jai Sri Ram to Modiji’ at Mandi where he dedicated three thermal power stations to the nation.

The slogan, which filled the Ram temple movement of 1990s, was amended to suit Modi as the BJP is trying to hold on to the Hindu symbolism that also got fueled by the Central government’s plan to set up a Ramayana museum at Ayodhya, while the ruling Samajwadi Party wants to construct a Ramleela theme park.

Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, who was at Ayodhya to inspect the proposed site for the museum, interestingly told reporters that people of the country have entrusted upon Modi to do “Ram ka kam”.

“If anyone gets a chance to work for Bhagwan Ram he is most fortunate...it will be good fortune if Bhagwan Ram gives us a chance to do ‘Ram ka kaam’ and this responsibility has been given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the people of the country,” Sharma said.

Though the temple politics had never yielded political dividend to the BJP since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, sustained religious sloganeering, said a party source, will end up polarising the state. Modi had not raised the slogan during his 2014 election campaign in UP. The party intends to contest on twin planks of development and national security.

The BJP had backed the prime minister after his use of religious terminology had courted controversy when the Congress wondered over the use of such invocations publicly by occupants of such an august office.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had visited Hanuman Garhi at Ayodhya during his UP kisan yatra, a first for the Gandhi family since 1992.