Vishwa Hindu Parishad to launch campaign for Ram temple in Ayodhya

Invigorated after the victory of the Narendra Modi-led BJP at the Centre, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will launch a mass campaign covering one lakh villages in India to press for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

The week-long "Ram utsav", which will be launched early next year, will also cover 9,000 villages in Maharashtra and see a show of strength with processions, religious discourses, keertans, speeches and contests. The VHP is seeking a law for the construction of a Ram temple.

Mir Baqi, a general of Mughal emperor Babar is said to have destroyed a temple of Lord Ram in 1528 to construct the Babri masjid. After the BJP brought the temple issue into the mainstream political discourse in the 1980s, the mosque was felled by kar sewaks from the Sangh Parivar and other radical Hindu right wing groups on December 6, 1992, which led to large-scale rioting across the country, including Mumbai.

"This will be a jagran (awareness)... no programme regarding Lord Ram can be held without reference to Ram Janmabhoomi. The birth of Lord Ram is celebrated in every village on Ram Janmabhoomi but there is no temple at the site where he was born," said VHP's India secretary Prof Vyankatesh Abdeo, who participated in the movement calling for the Ram temple to be erected on the disputed site. The first of its kind campaign will be held from Gudi Padwa to Ram Navami in March 2015.

"This will automatically create pressure... for a law to be approved in Parliament for the construction of the Ram temple," he added, noting that this would highlight the public opinion on the issue. "This is on the government agenda, but they must be reminded of it," Abdeo said, adding that deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, KM Munshi and others had re-constructed the Somnath temple in Gujarat.

The campaign, which is being launched during the golden jubilee celebrations of the radical VHP, which was formed in Mumbai in 1964, will also see tree plantation being done, and appeals for eye donation and body donations being made.

Earlier, VHP's international secretary general Champat Rai had told dna that before the bill to construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya was passed, the Muslim community had to be "persuaded" to withdraw their claim on the disputed land and their case from the Supreme Court. He had said that the verdict of the Allahabad high court was sufficient for the government to make a law for the temple.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court had in 2010 ruled in a majority judgement that there be a three-way division of the land on which the Babri mosque stood — one part each for 'Ram Lalla' (infant Ram), Nirmohi Akhada and Sunni Waqf Board. That high court verdict was subsequently stayed by the Supreme Court which admitted appeals by both Hindu and Muslim organisations.

"This is not a political issue. Lord Ram belongs to all," said Abdeo, adding that he had met around 430 MPs across party lines after the HC ruling. He claimed most of these law makers were personally in agreement over taking the legislative route to construct the temple.