Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra That Changed The Political Landscape And Face Of Hindutva In India.

Somnath to Ayodhya Ram Rath Yatra changed the Political Landscape and Face of Hindutva in India by L K Advani.

The 1990 Rath Yatra propelled Lal Krishna Advani as the unwavering face of Hindutva and eventually led the BJP to head the Centre six years later in 1996. 

Abhishek Chakraborty 

The Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has finally become a reality for the crores of Hindus across the globe who had been dreaming of Lord Ram’s ‘return to his rightful place’. But the path to Ram Mandir was not easy. A movement, sparked by a legal plea in 1885 to build the temple, gathered steam in the 1980s and had several incidents that would go down in history as its defining moments. Among them, perhaps LK Advani’s Rath Yatra is the highlight as it gathered massive support across the country.

How Advani, Pramod Mahajan Planned 1990 Rath Yatra: Optics And Impact

The Ayodhya movement was the BJP’s chief poll plank for the 1989 election. Then Prime Minister VP Singh’s announcement in 1990 of accepting the Mandal Commission’s report threatened the BJP’s own Hindutva agenda. This is when the BJP thought of pushing forward its agenda.

Initially, Advani planned a padyatra (foot march). However, according to reports, his confidant and BJP planner Pramod Mahajan raised the concern that it would be too slow and the message might even get diluted due to its pace. Advani then pondered that perhaps a car (of Jeep-make) would work better in terms of speed.

It was then that Mahajan had a brainwave that would invoke a sense of unity among the nation’s Hindus — a rally on a chariot or ‘Rath Yatra’. The question was how to implement the design of a faster chariot. The BJP achieved this by converting a Toyota mini truck into a ‘rath’ or chariot.

What was remarkable was not the BJP’s decision to undertake the yatra in a mini-truck, but to strike a chord with the masses through sheer optics in 1990, an age devoid of digital distractions and influenced largely by TV serials that too before the cable TV reach spread.

Fitted with loudspeakers, a huge canopy, and a decked-up grandly, Advani’s air-conditioned ‘rath’ resembled the chariot of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan that was aired on Doordarshan. According to witness accounts and media reports from the time, Advani himself looked resplendent and somewhat resembled Arun Govil, who played Ram in the mega TV series. This was evident from the manner people would touch his feet and throw coins at his chariot, just as they would do at a temple.

The response from the people took even the BJP by surprise. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was not very keen on the Yatra during the VP Singh government, to which the BJP had extended support, also admitted later that it did resonate with the public very well.

Advani’s Arrest And Impact On National Politics

Advani couldn’t complete his grand Rath Yatra as he was arrested by the Lalu Prasad Yadav administration in Patna on October 23, 1990, after a little over a month of embarking on the rally. Yadav’s move was reportedly approved by VP Singh. Advani spent five weeks in detention.

Years later, in an interview to NDTV, Lalu Prasad Yadav said he had two options — garland Advani and let him pass through Bihar, or maintain “peace” by arresting him. He chose the second. He said choosing the first option would have let him save VP Singh’s National Front and, in turn, his own government. But he chose to make that “sacrifice”.

Advani’s arrest, however, only angered thousands of kar sevaks, who marched on to Ayodhya. The frenzy that ensued near Babri Masjid prompted the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (also an ally in VP Singh’s National Front government) to order the police to open fire on those who were instigating and indulging in violence. The actions of the Lalu and Mulayam governments led to the fall of the VP Singh government as the BJP withdrew its support to it in November 1990.

The Yatra propelled Lal Krishna Advani as the unwavering face of Hindutva and eventually led the BJP to head the Centre six years later in 1996. Meanwhile, in the absence of a known Muslim face to deal with the rising Hindutva sentiments and the fall of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, Lalu Prasad Yadav garnered Muslim voters’ support for standing up to the BJP and arresting Advani.

Advani, now 96, nearly forgotten and pushed to the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, has received an invitation to the inauguration of Ayodhya Ram Mandir. He will surely remember the most “exhilarating days of his life” as he mentioned in a recent article.

Read also:: Ram Mandir Movement Discovered India Anew: Lal Krishna Advani.

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This article of Abhishek Chakraborty was published in News ABP Live on 17.01.2024.

The This article of Lal Krishna Advani was published in Zee News  on 13.01.2024. 

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