RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Udupi on Friday. PTI photo RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Udupi on Friday. PTI photo

Days before the Supreme Court begins the final hearing on a clucth of appeals on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Friday that no structure other than a Ram Temple will be built at the disputed site.

He was speaking on the opening day of a three-day Dharam Sansad conclave of Hindu religious leaders from across the country, organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the temple town of Udupi.

“On the Ramjanamabhoomi, the Ram Mandir alone will be built. Nothing else will be built. It will be built in the same form with the same stones and will be built by the same people who fought for it 20 to 25 years ago. This is not a populist announcement. It is an expression of our mind. This is a firm fact and is not going to change,’’ Bhagwat said while stating that the atmosphere is getting conducive for building the temple. “The moment of it becoming a reality is near and we need to make the efforts to ensure it happens,’’ he told the conclave.

Read | RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on Ram temple a challenge to SC: Muslim law board

“When people ask me about the temple, I do not give a definite answer because I cannot predict the future. Balasaheb told us in 1990 that it will take 20 or 30 years. In 2010, it became 20 years. In 2020 it will be 30 years. The efforts have not gone to waste and the time is near. We have to take cautious steps forward,’’ the RSS Sarsanghachalak said.

“For the benefit of the Hindu society and for its future the only desire is to have a Ram Temple at Ayodhya and there is no other thought in our minds. So we should take steps to build on the efforts of the past years — there is saying in English that there is a distance between the cup and the lip.”

“Mistakes are made when people think that there is no problem if a mistake is made,’’ he said. “There should not be loss for anyone and there should be progress for everyone. Nobody needs to lose their identity and everybody must enjoy the new structure,’’ he said. “I feel victory is at hand,’’ Bhagwat said.

The seer of the Pejawar Math at Udupi Vishweshateertha Swamiji who is hosting the Dharam Sansad in his speech said that the construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya will begin in one year.

“We have a conducive environment for the construction of the temple. It will be done by 2019. I am giving this assurance on the basis of the existing environment,’’ the Pejawar seer said.

President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Praveen Togadia said that he wishes for a Ram temple to be built in Ayodhya at the earliest. “We want a Ram Temple at Ayodhya and we want Ram Rajya in India,’’ Togadia said.

A seer from the Lingayat community, Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji, of the Suttur Math warned that Hindu society faces the danger of being over run by lumpen elements. The biggest danger to Hinduism is from “pseudo Hindu groups who in the name of Hinduism indulge in lumpen activities and cause irreparable damage to religion.’’ He named “cow vigilantism, moral policing and the heralding of pseudo sanyasis’’ as dangers and said “they should not be tolerated.

“The Dharam Sansad must aim at realizing the ideal of Mahatma Gandhiji and there is no higher goal than the search of truth in its pristine purity as ordained in our ancient scripts and needs to be put into practice,’’ he said. “The experience of knowledge of Shri Mohan Bhagwatji will definitely provide a certain direction in the future course of direction’’ decided by the Dharam Sansad, he said.

The three-day Dharam Sansad is expected to come up with a resolution for the construction of the Ram Temple without specifying a deadline; re-emphasize the push for “cow protection” in the country; seek “better harmony among Hindus castes,” and address issues of “attacks on Hindu culture.”

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