Congress leader Kapil Sibal's plea to the Supreme Court on Tuesday to defer hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi case till after the next Lok Sabha election in 2019 was just the opportunity the BJP was waiting for.
Coming as it did in the middle of election season in Gujarat, the Supreme Court's hearing of the Ayodhya title suit case has provided the saffron party with new ammunition to attack Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as he has been pursuing a 'soft Hindutva' campaign in the western state.
Sibal, in his capacity as lawyer representing the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Wakf Board, asked a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court—which has been looking into appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court's verdict in the case—to defer hearing the matter till July 15, 2019.
The rationale offered by Sibal as he sought deferment of hearing from the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was that the issue has political ramifications, and that the Supreme Court should not fall into the trap of the ruling BJP, which had kept the Ram Mandir issue in its election manifesto.
It did not take BJP president Amit Shah long to realise the political import of Sibal's arguments in court. No sooner had the hearing in court ended, the BJP sent out a message saying that Shah would give a media byte at the party office in Ahmedabad. The BJP chief lost no time in asking the Congress to clarify its stand on the Ram Temple. Referring to Gandhi's frequent visits to temples in Gujarat as he campaigned for the Assembly elections, Shah said the Congress vice president should make it clear if he supports the stand taken by Sibal in court.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, campaigning in Gujarat on Wednesday, raked up Sibal's argument made in court. “(There is) no objection that Kapil Sibal is fighting on behalf of Muslim community, but how can he say do not find a solution to this until next election? How is it connected to Lok Sabha elections?” Modi asked at a rally in Dhandhuka.
The Congress has been walking a thin line in Gujarat as it tries to limit the election discourse to issues other than religion. It has been completely silent on the communal riots of 2002. It realises that once the election gets communalised, the BJP stands to gain from the polarisation that would follow. And this strategy has frustrated BJP strategists.
The Ayodhya case may give the BJP the window it needed to appeal to Hindutva sentiments. The party has been quick to latch on to Sibal's submissions before court, and attack Rahul and the Congress over the temple issue. In the fag end of campaigning in Gujarat, the BJP may look to use the opportunity.
