Even 26 years after a marauding mob demolished the Babri masjid with the chant — “Mandir Vahin Banayenge (Will build the temple there)” — the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) have not let go off their “promise”.
This is despite the fact that those who took the temple construction issue seriously have been gradually sidelined. Cancer surgeon-turned-Hindutva protagonist Dr Pravin Togadia is the latest in this list comprising Acharya Dharmendra and Sadhvi Ritambhara among others. After his two-decade-long association with the Sangh Parivar, Togadia was forced out of theVHP as its international working president early this year. He proceeded to float his outfit— the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP)— with the same aim. Even at 63, his passion for the temple remains undiminished as he questions the parent organisation he had joined as a 10-year-old-boy. Excerpts:
After a high-voltage drama, the RSS piped down in Ayodhya on November 25 , providing no new dates or directions. What is your take on this?
Even the RSS has divergent views. The currently dominant pro-Modi group merely wants to go about business-as-usual, create a mahaul (atmosphere) — not to construct the temple — as a prelude to the next elections, one after another.
This dragging of feet has disillusioned many in the Sangh Parivar.
Both the BJP and the RSS have over the years declared their commitment to build the temple once they secured majority in the Lok Sabha. Why didn’t they,since 2014?
This precisely is my question. With a
Do you think the RSS leadership is not serious about the issue but merely posturing?
Unfortunately, yes. If they call the Congress, the SP, the BSP and the others “anti-Hindu”, how will they see themselves? An RSS man is in power as the PM and the RSS men are ‘agitating’ against him! They are in power as well as in the Opposition, as if playing chess from both the sides. With this dual play, the loser will only be one: the RSS. This is what happened during the Vajpayee regime and 2004 brought the Congress back to power. I’m afraid history may repeat itself in 2019.
But the Ayodhya case is still pending in the Supreme Court. What can the government do?
Precisely because of this, the Sangh Pariwar wanted the BJP to enact a new law to settle the issue once and for all. Secondly, if the apex court can sit through the night in the Afzal Guru case for an urgent hearing, how can it relegate the centuries-old Ayodhya issue to the backburner, again and again .
After all, the Modi government did enact a law in the triple talaq and the SC-ST case. Then why not on the temple issue?
What do you plan to do next?
We will not let the temple issue become an orphan.It is our baby as all others have abandoned Ram Lalla. We will find a logical conclusion and construct the temple at the Lord’s Janmabhoomi . Come what may.
Is the particular place in Ayodhya the real Janmabhoomi of Shri Ram?
Yes...just like the way a particular house in Porbandar, Gujarat, is the Janmabhoomi of Gandhiji where his memorial exists.