Since the Congress did not send a representative to the temple inauguration, I expected Gandhi to speak about Ayodhya, but as it turned out, it was in Uttar Pradesh. But even in Varanasi, a city facing the possibility of a second Ayodhya, he barely mentioned it. The morning after my speech there, I visited a district called Pirikoshi. We followed a series of paths, each one surrounded by so many high-rise tenements that it looked like a valley. Although it was a Sunday, the sound of the sari looms echoing through Pilikothi. The sound drifted into the basement, where the mufti of Varanasi, Abdul Batin Nomani, sat at a low desk. Behind him was a shelf lined with theology books. His hand didn’t hesitate for a moment as he took out the book to explain his point.
The title of mufti, or jurist, has been in Nomani’s household since 1927, a role he held for more than 20 years. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has spread so much hatred that it has eroded even the possibility of friendly relations between Hindus and Muslims, he said. Offering namaz in public, a Muslim man marrying a Hindu woman, or running a butcher shop during a Hindu festival can lead to arrest. He could be lynched on whispers that he was transporting beef, have his house demolished by suspected mobs, or be chased by a mob egged on by Bharatiya Janata Party politicians who are calling for his murder. Nomani told me about the abbot of a nearby Hindu monastery and how they invite each other to religious services. “Then slowly his mind changed,” Nomani said. “He must have been convinced that it was wrong for him to talk to someone like me.”
Nomani chairs the committee for the Gyambapi Mosque, another centuries-old structure that the Hindu right wants to convert into a temple. A few weeks before I met Nomani, a court had allowed Hindus to pray in the basement of a mosque, similar to what happened in Ayodhya in 1986. Muslims in Varanasi are scared, Nomani said. Could a similar chain reaction occur? I’m sure other mosques will follow suit. As the yatra passed, Mr. Nomani told local Congress members that he would welcome a meeting with Mr. Gandhi. That never happened. Nomani wondered why Gandhi did not even talk about this issue and directly confront the divisive politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party. “Someone could have called and reassured me, ‘Don’t worry, we’re in this together,'” Nomani said. He feels sympathy for Gandhi. “He wants to do the right thing and I believe he is against this culture of hate,” he said. “But he’s weak. His party is weak. There’s nothing he can do.”
From Prayagraj, The yatra headed to Amethi, a town several hours north. The last time I visited was in 2009, when it was still the seat of the First House of Parliament, there were fields of winter rape blossoms dyed yellow to the horizon on the outskirts of the town, and wishbone-shaped roads along the three main roads. I remembered the layout of That year, Gandhi won a landslide victory. But when his own profit margins shrunk in 2014, he must have witnessed the rising tide of Hindu nationalism. Sanjay Singh, a local Congress worker, said Mr Gandhi sounded disappointed as the results trickled in on vote counting day, telling his colleagues: “The politics in this state are beyond my understanding.” , he recalled. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party flipped Amethi. If Gandhi had not simultaneously run as a candidate from another seat in Kerala, he would not have been in the Congress at all.
The Yatra schedule included an evening gathering, so I spent the afternoon at Singh’s house in a nearby village. A stern-eyed man with a ramrod bearing, he wore a spotless white shirt and trousers, with a parliamentary banner tied around his neck like a cravat. Although he lamented the Congress’ loss of Amethi, he was not surprised. From 2014 to 2019, Gandhi visited Amethi less frequently and sent advisors instead. Still, Singh said he felt almost guilty about Amethi’s vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Last year, he had a chance to meet Mr. Gandhi, who again asked him to run away from Mr. Amethi, he said. But a few weeks after I met Singh, Gandhi declared that he would stick to the Kerala constituency.
