The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday made a renewed pitch for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and announced a seminar, to be held in January, on how to work toward a legal solution to the issue.
VHP leader Ashok Singhal, however, did not blame the Narendra Modi government for not making any move to construct the temple, despite a BJP majority government at the Centre.
“The Supreme Court has to pronounce its judgment on the matter, and the government too has to wait,” he said.
The VHP’s aim is to draw attention to the significant legal victories already in its kitty on the issue and how to move forward, he said.
The seminar would be held under the aegis of the Arundhati Vashisth Anusandhan Peeth, an affiliated organisation of the VHP.
Dr. Swamy said that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on how to remove legal obstacles on the route to building the Ram temple and had “received an acknowledgement of the letter” but not a reply.
“I have also written to BJP president Amit Shah for calling a special session of the party’s national executive on the specific assurances in the party’s manifesto on the Ram temple,” he said.
The VHP’s move, while significant for its timing, coming as it does ahead of the Bihar polls, is still a toned down version of what the organisation had planned for September 30. In June, the organisation had declared that it would unveil the full architectural plan for the Ram temple. On Wednesday, it just announced the seminar and asked for donations in shilas (bricks) for the proposed temple. Sources said, however, that once the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are round the corner, the tempo might well go up.
