Almost two weeks after the death of former Vishwa Hindu Parishad president Ashok Singhal, Hindutva supporters online began to flood Twitter with the hashtag #IndiaWantsRamMandir. The social media campaign was triggered after VHP and Bharatiya Janata Party activists announced, at a gathering in Ayodhya on November 27, that they would build a Ram temple around Singhal's ashes at the disputed site of the demolished Babri Masjid.

While immersing the ashes before a gathering of around 4,000 supporters, VHP leaders reportedly took an oath to realise Singhal's dream of building a Ram temple on the very spot in Ayodhya on which they claim the god was born.

The Twitter campaign in response to this oath came in the form of high-pitched, emotional appeals from right-wing tweeters.





The "secularists" targeted in the #IndiaWantsRamMandir tweets did not, of course, remain silent, reminding the "bhakts" of the development promises on which the Bharatiya Janata Party had come to power.

 

 

Some saw the rekindling of the Ram Mandir issue as a predictable pre-poll strategy:

Others responded with sarcasm and humour: