The NDA government may be silent on the issue, but Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Nritya Gopal Das believes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a decision on the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya soon.

Indicating that they were looking for a solution to the problem outside the court and that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was gearing up to make a law through Parliament, Das stressed that the time has come for construction of the Ram temple.

Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Nritya Gopal Das (centre). The trust operates under the Vishva Hindu Parishad

“The time of Lord Ram’s stay in a tent is over. PM Modi is taking solid steps for construction of a magnificent temple in Ayodhya soon,” Das said.

The Nyas, which operates under the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), has already constructed thousands of columns for the temple at Karsevak Puram in Ayodhya.

The trust claims that it would fix the columns and construct the temple within a few days of getting permission for it.

Modi's tenure

“We are expecting that even the Opposition parties would support the Modi government in Parliament on this issue. The entire process of construction of Ram temple will be started and completed during Modi’s tenure as PM,” Das said.

However, a senior BJP leader told Mail Today: “The party does not want to rake up the issue as of now. Ram temple is a sensitive issue. The government is now focusing mainly on the pro-reform agenda and the land Bill.”

Meanwhile, the Akhara Parishad, one of the largest sadhu organisations, has said the issue of the Ram temple is close to its heart and that it won’t let the Union government take any decision unilaterally.

The makeshift Ram Lala temple in Ayodhya. The Akhara Parishad, one of the largest organisations of sadhus, has said they won’t let the Centre take a unilateral decision on the temple issue

More meetings

“The Akhara Parishad cannot let anything happen at the cost of annoying the Muslim community. This is why we are also in the process of coming out with a formula after discussion with the sadhus and the clerics,” said Mahant Narendra Giri, the newly-elected president of the parishad.

The Ram Janmabhoomi trust has already constructed thousands of columns (above) for the temple at Karsevak Puramin Ayodhya

Giri said he would soon meet Hashim Ansari, the oldest plaintiff in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, to give final shape to the plan.

According to Akhara Parishad, they will convince the Muslim religious leaders to help the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas in constructing the Ram temple at the disputed site.

All four Shankaracharyas, along with important Muslim clerics, will participate in ‘bhumi pujan’ for the temple. Later, a masjid would also be constructed with the help of Hindu religious leaders.

“We will have a concrete plan by August this year and present it before the sadhus of the country during Nasik Kumbh,” Giri said.

When asked, Ansari said: “I am against leaving Ram Lala in a tent. But that doesn’t mean that we will allow the government to ignore the Muslim point of view. We had sought audience with Prime Minister Modi to discuss this issue. I welcome Narendra Giri to discuss this issue. I consider Akhara Parishad an important organisation which is capable of taking any decision on religious issue. Ram Janmabhoomi- Babri Masjid is a religious issue which is unnecessarily vitiating the atmosphere. I also believe that only a bilateral talk can solve the dispute.”

Zafaryab Jilani, additional advocate general of UP and counsel of the Sunni Waqf Board, one of the parties in the case, has already said that they would prefer the Supreme Court to decide the case.

(With inputs from Mail Today Bureau/New Delhi)

'Nation could be divided again due to RSS'

By Mail Today Bureau in Lucknow

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Arshad Madani

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH), one of the largest Muslim organisations in the Indian subcontinent, has said that the country is once again ‘on the verge of partition’ because of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leaders.

“The BJP and RSS leaders are making such (communal) statements to create terror in the mind of the Muslim community, but the PM is silent as he is under pressure from the RSS. We are observing the Sangh for the last 70 years and know its true agenda. They cannot mislead us by their occasional sympathetic statements,” JUH president Arshad Madani told newspersons in Deoband, Saharanpur, on Monday.

He said the country would be divided again if these people are not stopped.

“The RSS is harmful not only for the Muslim community, but also for the Hindus. The country was divided in the past because of the same communal forces. We fear that India will once again be divided if such forces are not stopped from their design to communalise the entire country,” he added.

The JUH chief demanded that Modi take action against those who make hateful remarks to terrorise any community.

“The Muslims have been massacred in the country during RSS-induced riots. Modi must take action against them to prove that he wants the growth of all communities,” the JUH president said.

“The silence of Modi on the issue of the demand of the right-wing organisations to put a ban on conversion and populationrelated issues is a proof that there is a difference between what he says and what he ideologically believes,” Madani added.

Morea’s 'ibhakti' draws ire of Kashi temple authorities

By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow

The management of Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi has alleged that an organisation owned by Bollywood actor Dino Morea was cheating people by running a website “ibhakti” to take online orders for prasad.

Although it was a policy decision of the state government to deliver prasad to the people through online orders and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had launched the website on March 14, P.N. Dwivedi, the assistant chief executive officer of Kashi Vishwanath Temple, said they didn’t know about any such decision.

Kashi Vishwanath temple is one of the most visited temples in India

“I have met Morea once. They have started selling prasad, but the temple administration has no idea about this. They had certainly asked for the model of a packet of our prasad so that the issue could be discussed in a meeting, but we don’t know when and how the website started the sale and delivery of prasad,” he said.

The prasad, named Lal Peda, has already been delivered by the website against over 200 orders at the rate of Rs 550 per pack.

Morea was quoted as saying that he was doing a good service for the believers by delivering prasad to those who are unable to reach the holy places.

Although UP religious affairs minister Vijay Mishra said such a plan was certainly in the offing, he feigned ignorance over the beginning of any such arrangement to date.