by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Harish Rawat
Dehradun : Congress General Secretary Harish Rawat on Friday said the party will launch sincere efforts to build a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya if it comes to power after the Lok Sabha elections.
“On two previous occasions, the Congress made sincere attempts to build the Ram temple when it was in power. We will sincerely launch efforts to build the Ram temple if we come to power,” Rawat told reporters here.
Asked whether this the party’s official stand, Rawat quipped: “My statement regarding the Ram temple was widely reported in the media. There is no denial from the Congress.”
He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being insincere on the issue. “BJP is only doing politics on the Ram temple issue,” said Rawat. The government must work as a facilitator for building the temple, he said.
On the Pulwama suicide bombing, Rawat accused the BJP of projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the only nationalist in the country.
“I have strong objections on the projection of Modi as the only nationalist in India. We all are nationalists. Everybody in the country is a nationalist,” Rawat said.
Criticizing the Uttarakhand BJP government on its budget presented this week, Rawat said the declining agriculture and manufacturing growth in the state was a matter of grave concern.
He said nearly a dozen factories had been closed in the state after the November 7 investors meet. He also claimed that of the nine lakh farmers in the state, 50,000 have quit farming in the past two years.
Rawat said the government’s decision to relax the stringent land laws would force the people to migrate to other states.
“Top industrialists like Adani and Ramdev would buy all the land. There will be no land left for living,” said Rawat.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Mohit Dubey,
Ayodhya : It is a rainbow of hope and faith outside the sprawling 67 acres of the Ram Janmabhoomi (RJB) in the temple town of Ayodhya as hundreds of people from different parts of India queued up for a darshan of ‘Ram Lalla’ on a sunny Thursday afternoon.
Under the vigilant eyes of gun-toting security personnel from the UP Police and the paramilitary forces, including an all-women’s unit, people in bright turbans, women young and old with veils covering their faces, others with their foreheads smeared with vermillion, walked up the pathway leading to the makeshift temple.
The serpentine iron-grilled corridors fenced by barbed wire were choked with devotees finding their way from one side to the other of the 3-km stretch for ‘darshan’ of ‘Ram Lalla’ installed under a tent since December 6, 1992 when thousands of ‘kar sevaks’ razed the 16-the century Babri mosque.
Bhishmasen Bassoi from Naurangpur in Odisha waited anxiously for his turn. He said in broken Hindi that there was no way that construction of the temple could now be delayed.
The 62-year-old said he was sure that the next time he was in Ayodhya, work would have started on the grand Ram temple and that he would live to see its completion.
Kanhaiyya Lal Sharma, who runs a ‘locker room’ for the devotees to keep their wallets, phones and other items barred from the premises, said the footfall “of late has increased considerably”. While the 28-year-old partly credits this to the ongoing Kumbh in Prayagraj, he says the “recent buzz around the Ram temple construction” has also created interest among the people.
Sixty-five-year-old Mast Ram from Barwa Tola locality of Ayodhya was selling guavas outside the ‘isolated zone’ of the RJB and his eyes brimmed with confidence at the mention of a Ram temple.
“Ram Mandir to banbaiy kari,” he said in Avadhi dialect, adding that his hopes are pinned on the “recent developments” narrated to him by his college-going grandson.
With the Centre moving an application in the Supreme Court for handing over the 67 acre acquired land minus the disputed 2.22 acre, the locals and the visitors are certainly pepped up with the prospect of an early solution to the long-simmering imbroglio.
Sporting a burly moustache, Nawal Das from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh was certain that this time round “Mantri ji will settle the issue”. Prodded to tell more, he coyly refused to answer and melted into the bustling crowd.
Yagnesh, a priest from Vadodara, who was part of a 12-member contingent from the Gujarat, said that though he has been to Ayodhya thrice in the past, this time was “different”. “I am sure the prospects of a grand Ram temple are brighter than ever”.
Hemant Mishra, a local who is a regular to the ‘Ram Kachehri’ temple near the RJB, threw up his hands in despair at the “politics being played on the sensitive matter”. Pointing at the heavy security around and the tall fences, he said this was a “sad situation” that “broke his heart”.
Chinta Devi, a village woman from Nalanda, was equally sad at the fact that “Ram Lalla has fallen on bad times (is durdasha)”. She, like many other pilgrims coming to Ayodhya, hope that “Ram Mandir ka Nirman sheeghra hoga” (the temple construction will be soon).
(Mohit Dubey can be reached at mohit.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mohan Bhagwat
Nagpur : Taking a swipe at the BJP-led government at the Centre, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday wondered why soldiers were dying on the country’s borders though there is no war and on the delays in constructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Speaking at the silver jubilee of the Prahaar Samaaj Jagruti Sanstha here on Thursday evening, he rued that soldiers continued to be killed on the borders without a war going on.
“It is because we are not doing our job properly. Before Independence, people sacrificed their live for the country. After freedom, it was on the borders during a war. There is no war on…. still people are getting martyred,” Bhagwat said.
Maintaining that “there is no reason” why a soldier should die at the borders, he pointed out that “it is happening even without a war.”
In an obvious expression of displeasure over the delays in constructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya, RSS general secretary Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi sarcastically remarked that “now, it (the temple) will be constructed in 2025.”
The reference was to the series of delays, political and legal tangles bogging the BJP’s assurances of taking up the temple construction, which its ally in Maharashtra and centre the Shiv Sena has also repeatedly criticized in the past.
Bhagwat also urged the people and society at large to contribute to make the country great.
He asked each person to strive for this and not leave everything to the government, the police and the army to do it.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Lucknow : The Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) has decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court in case the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre brings in an ordinance paving way for the construction of a grand Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, an office-bearer said on Wednesday.
He said the BMAC took the decision at a meeting on Tuesday.
The move comes ahead of the January 4 hearing by the apex court on the matter.
While right-wing groups and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) have been pressing for the ordinance, the opposition has been seeking a court verdict on the contentious issue.
One of the 70 persons, who attended the meeting, said it was a routine one and had no specific agenda. Though the possibility of the Modi government bringing in an ordinance or a legislation on the temple issue was discussed.
Convenor of the BMAC Zafaryab Jilani said the committee would also urge the Supreme Court to not rush through the matter and pronounce a verdict only after going through all aspects and studying all relevant papers and documents.
The BMAC members were also of the view that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral defeats in three states, the whipping up of passion on the temple issue and the pro-temple statements by senior BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, could not be taken in isolation or lightly.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday said that he would bring a Private Member Bill in Parliament for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Tiwari made the statement after a delegation of over 25 Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders led by Bachan Singh met him at his residence here and gave him a memorandum for the temple construction.
“I just received a memorandum from the VHP delegation. And I want to assure them that I will raise the issue in Parliament and in my party,” Tiwari told the media here.
Asked if he would bring a Private Member Bill , he replied, “If required I will be the first person to bring a Private Member Bill in Parliament for the construction of the Ram temple.”
The MP said that he was shocked to learn that the matter of Ram temple has been pending for over 490 years, since 1528.
“The matter of Ram temple has been pending in court since 1950. And as the court is extending the matter and delaying the construction, we have submitted our memorandum to Tiwariji to raise the issue in Parliament,” Singh said.
—IANS
