RSS reiterates its demand for law to help build temple

NEWDELHI/NAGPUR: Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and its affiliate, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), on Wednesday reiterated their demand for an ordinance or a law to pave the way for building a Ram temple in place of the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

“I do not know what the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] has exactly said about the issue, but we want the government to bring a law to build the Ram temple immediately. And we stand by our demand,” RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi said in Nagpur, where his organisation is headquartered.

Joshi’s statement came a day after Modi ruled out an ordinance as long as the judicial process in the matter is not over. “Let the judicial process take its own course… Let the judicial process be over. After the judicial process is over, whatever be our responsibility as a government, we are ready to make all efforts,’’ Modi told news agency Asian News International in an interview.

Later in the day, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the temple will be built in Ayodhya.

In Delhi, the VHP reminded the BJP that the pledge it had made to construct the temple in its manifesto had brought it to power in 2014 and that promise should be fulfilled during Modi’s current tenure. “In a democracy, a manifesto is a sacred document; it is a representation on which people vote for you...,” said VHP’S working president, Alok Kumar. He said there is no legal impediment to a legislation for the temple construction.