(8 Apr 2019) A multimillion dollar demolition project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi that aims to link the sacred Ganges River with a centuries-old temple shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's penchant for symbolism as political strategy in the upcoming general elections.
The most popular politician in India and the top selling brand of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been hard at work rallying voters to win a second term for his Hindu nationalist party.
Modi has been crisscrossing the country, addressing election rallies and boasting of his government's muscular policy against terror groups following a recent standoff with nuclear rival Pakistan.
After a suicide bombing killed 40 soldiers in Indian-controlled Kashmir, India's air force launched a strike on an alleged terrorist training camp inside Pakistan.
Mocking the opposition Congress party for not retaliating after attacks in Mumbai in 2008 , Modi told a cheering crowd that his government's response to the suicide bombing shows that a strong and new India is emerging.
National security may be dominating Modi's campaign speeches, but the underlying theme of the party's election narrative remains focused on Hindu nationalism.
In the Indian city Hindus consider the center of the world, Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting Ganges River with the centuries-old Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction.
It's a project dripping symbolism that shows Modi, the devout Hindu, restoring the ancient connection between Varanasi's two religious icons. It's also a political calculation.
In his five years as prime minister, Modi has pushed to promote this secular nation of 1.3 billion people and nine major religions - including about 170 million Muslims - as a distinctly Hindu state.
The promenade is just one of a number of Modi's religious glamour projects, aimed squarely at pleasing his Hindu nationalist BJP's base ahead of elections that start on Thursday.
The demolition of around 300 commercial and residential buildings to make way for the promenade has left a gaping hole in Varanasi's urban core, a congested maze of zig-zagging brick lanes full of religious shrines.
Modi 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.
In the demolition zone for the corridor, many Hindu families support the 115-million-dollar project despite losing their homes.
Businessman Anil Kumar Khanna, 58, said it was a "development in the name of God."
However, 70-year-old shopkeeper Bhullan, who uses one name, was not happy with how the city is changing.
Bhullan said that Kashi, another name commonly used for Varansi, had "lost its importance" due to the construction.
Some Varanasi Muslims fear the project could embolden Hindu hardliners who have demanded for decades that the 17th century Gyanvapi Mosque, which they claim was built over an earlier Vishwanath temple demolished in the Mughal era, should itself be torn down.
Outside the heavily guarded temple and mosque complex ringed with barbed wire, 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.
Deepak Agarwal, the city commissioner overseeing the Vishwanath project, said the project aims to "decongest" the area and connect the "two identities of Kashi and Varanasi."
The temple project is a BJP-led effort to stamp India's Hindu mores onto a multicultural society, observers say.
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