#loksabhaelection2024 #rammandir #arungovil

Politicians take on many roles. The benevolent patriarch, the diligent everyman, the formidable protector.

But in a corner of one of India’s largest states, a fledgling politician is trying something new – linking himself directly to the divine, a personification of a god whose name is now a rallying cry for the right-wing in India.

Welcome to episode 1 of Mandate 2024: Claim Vs Reality with Sreenivasan Jain, a six-part series that contrasts truth with lie in the biggest electoral battlegrounds.

This week, Sreenivasan heads to Meerut, where one man insists that a vote for him is a vote for “faith towards Lord Ram”. That man is Arun Govil, a first-time politician who’s still a household name after playing the starring role in Doordarshan’s 1980s hit Ramayan series. He stands at the centre of a concerted effort by the Sangh Parivar to drive votes in the name of the mandir, a campaign built on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque.

But rhetoric isn’t reality, papering religion over a government’s other inadequacies. But the BJP laid the groundwork for this crusade decades ago – and the fruit of its labours can now be seen through Govil.

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