Following is an excerpt from an article about Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar's speech on "annihilation of caste" , where he makes the case against the "religion of the land" as a mean to control for the powerful elite.
B.R. Ambedkar: Why social reform is necessary for economic reform.
It was an accepted creed of the whole Roman populus that no official could enter upon the duties of his office unless the Oracle of Delphi declared that he was acceptable to the Goddess. The priests who were in charge of the temple of the Goddess of Delphi were all Patricians. Whenever therefore the Plebians elected a Consul who was known to be a strong party man and opposed to the Patricians—or ‘communal,’ to use the term that is current in India—the Oracle invariably declared that he was not acceptable to the Goddess. This is how the Plebians were cheated out of their rights.
Since the mention of "Oracle of Delphi" I have been skeptic about it's general claim. Because as far I knew, "oracle of Delphi" were primarily related to greeks. So my questions are following
Because as far I knew, "oracle of Delphi" were primarily related to greeks
I mean yes, but the Pythia continued to exist well into the Roman Period. Of the surviving buildings and monuments at Delphi a good chunk of them are Roman. In particular, the column of Aemilius Paullus was built such that it overshadowed the famous Serpent Monument commemorating the end of the Persian Wars as well as the Temple of Apollo on the walk up along the Sacred Way.
How significant was the role of state religion in roman politics in Roman Republic (SPQR)?
Extremely, as was the case in all ancient societies. Elections were begun by the taking of the auspices, tribunes exercised their powers because of oaths that the other magistrates swore to respect them, sacrifices were done before battle, and so on. State religion was a fundamental part of any ancient society, and the Romans were no different. Religious authorities had important roles in the institutions of state, but typically in a post factum way. Roman religion conceived of the relationship between gods and state as a pax deorum, a peace of the gods, wherein rituals were performed to maintain peace with the gods, who would act against society if they were not performed properly. For this typically the ritual was repeated (e.g. during the Bona Dea incident) until it was done properly or the Sibylline Books were consulted for the creation of a new ritual, which might be a one-time deal or not. There is only one case that I know of in which the state was supposed to have consulted the Delphic oracle, and that's the story in Livy that Tarquin sent an embassy to Delphi--certainly an invented story, without a shred of historicity.
As such, the election of the "wrong" consul would not have been something about which religious authorities would be consulted, and much less the Pythia. I don't know who B.R. Ambedkar is, but he can't spell plebeian correctly. This is nonsense. The priests at Delphi were Greeks. Until the first century AD or so none of them would have been Roman citizens at all. And when eventually they were, they were people like Plutarch, who had been made a Roman citizen...of plebeian status. Nor did consuls just get rejected from elected office. I do not know of a single instance of a consul being denied his office after his election by the assembly. The only time a consul was deprived of his office was under Cinna, who was declared hostis well into his year and replaced with L. Merula. Cinna went to the army at Nola, told them that they had been deprived of their rights (the handing out and taking away of honors, i.e. elected office), and went with them back to the city where he was restored as consul. For such an apparently ubiquitous procedure, there is not one single reference to it in the texts and there is not one single instance of it.
There are lots of cases in which plebeians were excluded politically at Rome, especially in the early, semi-legendary days of the state. The early books of Livy are quite literally full of them. There is no need to invent (and misspell) fantasy