A project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi dreamed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows the master political marketer's penchant for symbolism as political strategy in elections that begin this month.
In this March 19, 2019, photo, funeral pyres burn on the banks of river Ganges, in Varanasi, India. According to ancient practice, funeral pyres burn constantly, with the debris and ash shoveled into the river. In the Indian city considered the center of the Hindu universe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction.
Modi, 68, has long understood how politics and religion intertwine in Varanasi. Despite hailing from the western state of Gujarat, he has chosen to run for a second time as the parliamentary candidate for Varanasi. Outside the heavily guarded temple and mosque complex ringed with barbed wire, where photography is prohibited, Aijaz Mohammed Islahi, the mosque's caretaker, said he fears the new clearing could allow right-wing Hindus to form a mob and attack the mosque.
At the same time, Hindu nationalists are demanding that a temple to the god Lord Ram be built at the site of a mosque rioters destroyed in 1992 that they say was built only after Muslims destroyed an ancient temple there."Enemies had their sight on Shri Kashi Vishwanath. Many a times it was under attack," Modi said at a promenade groundbreaking ceremony in March. "But there is power in the faith here and this great temple continues to give strength to people.
But the temple project is a BJP-led effort to stamp India's Hindu mores onto a multicultural society, historians and political scientists say. A demonetization program aimed to curb black market money by taking some rupee notes out of circulation. But it ultimately hurt the poor, and India's central bank later said that most of the illicit funds had re-entered the banking system.
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