assembly-elections

Updated: Dec 17, 2019 01:44 IST

The construction of a “sky touching” Ram temple in Ayodhya will start within four months, Union home minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national president Amit Shah said on Monday at a poll rally in Jharkhand’s Pakur district.

On November 9, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a temple being constructed at the disputed site. Last week, it dismissed a clutch of review applications and said no review of its decision was necessary.

“The construction of a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi has been the demand of every Indian for over a century. But the Congress party delayed the issue,” Shah said.

“I want to tell you that since the Supreme Court has pronounced its verdict, construction of a sky touching magnificent Ram temple will now commence within four months,” he added.

Shah was campaigning in the state where assembly elections are ongoing. The next phase of polling, the fifth, is on December 20. Results are to be declared on December 23.

Hitting out at the Mahagathbandhan (the alliance of opposition parties in the state) leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and Jharkand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren, Shah said: “Rahul Baba and Hemant [Soren] say why talk about Article 370 and Kashmir. Rahul Baba, you do not understand because you are wearing Italian spectacles. Thousands of youths of Jharkhand working in CRPF, BSF and army have laid down their lives for Kashmir.”

“Why should not Jharkhand people show concern for national issues?”

Shah also focused on the nullification of Article 370, which gave Jammu & Kashmir special status, a long-standing provision of the BJP manifesto.

“I am asking you people to tell whether you wanted Kashmir to be an integral part of India? You gave 12 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in this general election. And, the Modi government in its first parliamentary session abrogated Article 370,” he said.

“During Congress regimes, we had seen instances when terrorists from Pakistan used to enter in our territory and returned safely after beheading our soldiers. Our Mauni Baba (reference to the then PM Manmohan Singh) kept mum and never reacted, “ Shah said. “But after 2014 when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, Pakistan made same mistakes and attacked in Uri and Pulwama presuming that nothing would happen. But the BJP government led by Modi gave Pakistan a befitting reply by striking terrorists’ camps deep inside its territory in Balakot.”

Reacting to Shah’s speeches, state Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey said BJP leaders remained removed from core issues such as unemployment, economy, corruption, law and order.

“They are taking about Ram Mandir, Article 370, triple talaq, citizenship law, but will not talk about local issues such as deteriorating law and order condition, crime against woman, hunger deaths and farmer suicides. People have sensed their agenda and the same manifested in Haryana and Maharashtra elections. The same will happen here.”