Ram temple in Ayodhya to be ready by Jan 1 next year: Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah announced in Tripura on Thursday that the Ram Temple at Ayodhya will be ready by January 1, 2024, the first time a specific date is being assigned to the event. The trust in charge of building the temple had previously said the temple would be ready by January 2024 but not mentioned a date.

“Should the Ram Temple in Ayodhya be constructed or not? After Babur razed it and since we got Independence, Congress was responsible for keeping the matter pending in courts. But when Narendra Modi came to power and the Supreme Court gave its ruling, he announced construction of the temple.,” Shah said at a public meeting at Sabroom, flagging off a rath yatra for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

“In 2019, Rahul Gandhi used to taunt us as say that while we keep promising construction of the Ram Temple, we never give a fixed date . I would like to tell him and everyone else that the Ram Temple at Ayodhya will be ready on January 1, 2024,” he added.

The Supreme Court, in a late 2019 judgement, paved the way for the construction of the temple with an order that put an end to a decades-long movement. The construction of the temple has been a constant in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto since 1996.

Shah added that within a year or two the Tripurasundari Temple in Tripura would also be built. The north-eastern state goes to the polls this year and the union home minister was on a day-long trip to flag off two ‘rath yatras’ of the state’s ruling BJP and address two public meetings.

Shah appealed to the people to keep their faith on the development model of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming assembly polls.

“Whatever development you have seen since 2018 under the reign of Biplab Kumar Deb and Manik Saha is just a trailer. The entire movie is still left,” said Shah.

Reacting to Shah’s statements, Tripura Pradesh Congress president Birajit Sinha said: “ The BJP is engaging in politics by depriving people of basic necessities, like, food, employment. We condemn this kind of politics.”

Earlier, addressing a gathering at Dharmanagar, Shah said the BJP would return to power in Tripura with two-thirds majority on account of its focus on ‘ vikas’ ( development), ‘ vishwas’ ( faith), ‘ susashan’ ( good governance) and ‘ suvidha’ ( facilities) instead of the vinas ( destruction) ‘ vivaad’ ( quarrel), ‘ kushashan’ ( bad governance) and ‘ duvidha’ ( confusion) seen during the rule of the previous Left Front government in the state.

Raising the slogan ‘ Tripuray Abar, BJP Sarkar’ (BJP government again in Tripura) , Shah said the BJP has focused on development.

“There used to be infiltration, terrorism, corruption, trafficking, crimes against indigenous in Tripura. But, we have brought development in the state through connectivity, industrial investment, organic farming, etc., “ said Shah.

The BJP central leadership has set its sights on not just retaining power but also maintain its massive mandate from 2018, and is, therefore, deploying senior leaders to underscore how the BJP’s rule has been vastly different from that of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) in terms of development, said a senior party functionary aware of the details.

In 2018, the party stormed to power in the Left bastion, winning 36 of the 60 seats in the assembly and reducing the CPI(M) to 16.

”The contest in Tripura is a battle of the ideologies. In 2018, the BJP came to power exposing the deficiencies of the Left government that had been in power for three decades. In 2023, the party will form government based on the delivery of promises,” said the functionary cited above, requesting anonymity.

In Dharmanagar, the home minister also spoke of the agreement the government has reached with the banned insurgent group National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) to end insurgency in the state, and spoke of its other achievements including providing permanent resettlement to 37,000 Bru migrants, drinking water to 425,000 families, housing benefits to 380,000 families, free ration to poor people, subsidies to the farmers,and free health care benefits to 1.3 million families under Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

He slammed the opposition CPI(M) and Congress, saying that they had not done enough for the state’s development.

However, CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury retorted:“ He ( Amit Shah) should have speak about the vision document but he talked about Ram Mandir, Article 370 and others. The latest NCRB report released last year, shows surge in rate of crimes, infiltration etc., and he blames CPI (M) for that. This is his double-standard attitude.”

The eight-day long rath yatra will conclude on January 12 at Agartala where BJP national president JP Nadda is scheduled to address a gathering. The yatra will cover nearly 1,000 kilometres , across almost all constituencies. Besides the yatra, the BJP plans to over 100 meetings and 50 roadshows to highlightthe government’s performance.

The BJP’s election campaign is expected to pivot on the theme of development, but the reduction in insurgency will be prominent in its list of achievements. “The reduction in corruption and insurgent activities has changed the quality of life in Tripura. Earlier, there was corruption in every sphere...” said the functionary quoted above.

The party is also hopeful of winning support from women voters, based on policy interventions such as 33% reservation in all jobs, and representation in key administrative and judicial positions.

In recent weeks, dissension within the party saw several leaders and elected representatives quit and joined the Tipraha Indigenous People’s Regional Alliance (Tipra) Motha headed by former Congress leader Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma. The BJP also hopes the appointment of Manik Saha as chief minister in 2022 will help buck anti-incumbency and override issues of administrative lapses that made news during his predecessor Biplab Deb’s tenure.

“There were issues between Biplab Deb and some senior leaders but these have now been resolved. There is a cohesive unit with both the CM and the ex-CM ready for the electoral battle,” the functionary cited above said.

Tipra Motha’s call for a separate Tipra land has found some resonance among indigenous people and forced the BJP to increase its outreach to tribal communities. The party had performed well (winning 18 of the 28 seats) in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections in April 2021.