One Take | Ram Aa Gaye, Ab Polls Aayenge: INDIA Needs to Learn These Lessons Before 2024 Elections

Now that the Pran Pratishtha is over and Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir is seeing huge crowds, it time to get down to the business of elections.

The budget session is to be the last one for this government and seat-sharing talks are likely to reach a closure soon. But the way politics played out over the Ram Temple and continues to be, there are some important lessons which the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) alliance needs to learn and it has little time.

CONTRADICTIONS AND COMMENTS

First, there should be a stop to the Ram Mandir comments. The contradictions within the INDIA bloc have become evident. While the Congress showed bravado in skipping the Pran Pratishtha, the same could not be seen among its party leaders.

With 98% Hindu population, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu could not ignore the event and ordered a public holiday, and even lit up his official residence. In Karnataka, too, pujas were conducted in over 300 temples across the state and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy promised building of 100 Ram Mandirs across the state.

Other leaders like Randeep Surjewala welcomed the Ram Mandir.

This brings out the contradiction in the official stand of the Congress, which has rejected the Ram Mandir as a Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (BJP-RSS) event.

The fact that the PM ensured that his speech was inclusive and less about his party, with several top leaders and ministers not being invited, this argument of the Congress holds little water. In West Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee held a Sarva Dharm event, but she also made it a point to go to Kalighat Mandir.

While it is a fact that the core Hindutva BJP vote will not go to the Congress and its allies, the contradictory stand only adds to the confusion of the voters.

SLOGAN AND LEADERSHIP

Second, every front needs that one big slogan which can be a game-changer. In 2004, when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government seemed invincible, and INDIA was ‘shining’, Sonia Gandhi and the Congress broke this with a strong counter of ‘Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath’. The rest is history.

Even now, the INDIA front needs a strong slogan. Merely attacking the corporates, calling this government “corporate friendly" at a time when the PM unveils several schemes will not work. It needs that one big slogan which will tell what that one vote for the INDIA front will mean to people.

Finally, the issue of leadership has to be sorted out. As the PM stands tall, the confusing picture on the other side will only help the BJP make the point that the other side is squabbling over leadership.

Given the multiple egos and ambitions in the INDIA bloc, it may not be easy to name one face, but the convener and chairman issue needs to be given a spin which works and is credible.

The fight has just begun and the opposition needs to be battle-ready.