Will BJP Act on Its Ram Mandir Promise Even After UP Win?

New Delhi: In October last year, Narendra Modi first invoked Ram Mandir without naming it. Modi's call of 'Jai Shri Ram' in a Dusshera platform in Lucknow was followed by the promise of building a Ram museum.

Suddenly a number of people, both from within and outside the party, seemed to have remembered the temple issue and the delay caused in building it. BJP's own MP from UP Vinay Katiyar called Ram museum a mere 'lollipop' and demanded that the party instead actually construct the Ram temple on the disputed site.

A few days later, in January this year, the chief priest of the makeshift Ram Janmabhoomi temple claimed that the seers of Ayodhya would support BJP only if it promised Ram Temple. And finally, just a few days later, BJP did mention Ram Temple in their manifesto for UP, but could only promise that 'the law will be followed to get the temple built as soon as possible.'

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So, can the BJP build the Ram Temple now?

Going by what the courts recently indicated and the latest status of the case in the Supreme Court, it is very unlikely that BJP would be able to do anything about the promise made as not only the case is sub-judice but also the fact that the apex court has recently decided that it would want CBI to restore conspiracy charges against BJP and RSS members.

In December 1992, when the ancient mosque was razed down by the Kar Sevaks, it was BJP and RSS who had supported this idea of existence of Lord Rama's birth place in the site and eventually the matter reached the courts.

In the first week of March, 2017, the apex court said that senior BJP leaders like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti should be investigated for conspiracy charges, a charge which a lower court had exonerated them of around seven years ago. The bench also expressed its desire to conduct the trial in a speedy manner and asked the two pending cases in Lucknow and Rae Bareli to be heard together.

The apex court here was hearing an appeal by CBI against the Allahabad High Court verdict of 2010 in which the court's Lucknow bench ordered that the conspiracy charges against Advani and others should be dropped.

Now March 22 is set as the next date for hearing the SC, where the court may revive the conspiracy charges against the senior BJP leaders and ask CBI to investigate the same, which may prove to be a jolt to the winning party. But unless the primary question of land dispute is solved where none of the parties are willing to hold onto only ‘a share’ of the land, this issue is far from over and continues to remain sub-judice.

Now with BJP coming into power in the state, it would not risk to violate the orders of the apex court and rush into building a temple because not only is Ayodhya trying to gather itself to rise above communal issues but also await urgent development. The judiciary and the NDA government has long been in a hurdle over the appointment of the judges to the higher judiciary and with the formation of the Memorandum of Procedure, but now with the CJI indicating that MoP would be finalized in a few weeks, BJP will ensure not to be at loggerhead with the judiciary and allow the courts to take its time.