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Be patient on Ram temple issue: Rajnath Singh tells BJP MPs
BJP MPs Ravindra Kushawaha and Hari Narayan Rajbhar on Tuesday caught the party leadership off guard by raising the Ayodhya temple issue at the weekly meeting of parliamentarians, prompting home minister Rajnath Singh to urge them to be “patient”.
Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs on Tuesday caught the party leadership off guard by raising the Ayodhya temple issue at the weekly meeting of parliamentarians, prompting home minister Rajnath Singh to urge them to be “patient”, two leaders present at the meeting said.
The BJP parliamentary party generally meets every Tuesday during sessions. This was the second meeting of the winter session.
Singh had just completed his speech when Salempur MP, Ravindra Kushawaha, and Ghosi MP, Hari Narayan Rajbhar — both from Uttar Pradesh — asked him about the BJP’s stand on the issue of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Singh replied that everyone wanted a Ram temple at the site where Lord Ram is believed to have been born, and asked party MPs to be patient, according to the two leaders.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, who generally attend these meetings, were absent on Tuesday.
Building a Ram temple at Ayodhya is a key promise of the BJP. Its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and other affiliates have been piling pressure on the ruling party to take affirmative action in this matter. There have been demands from outfits, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), to bring an ordinance to construct a temple, but the government has remained non-committal. The issue is pending before the Supreme Court.
Earlier, Singh told the BJP MPs there was none to match Modi for the prime minister’s job, and they should not worry about the 2019 general elections. “After the setbacks in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh; Singh was trying to keep the morale of party MPs high,” the first leader quoted above said.
“We are far ahead of the opposition. Circumstances are very good for us,” Singh was quoted as saying by parliamentary affairs minister, Narendra Singh Tomar. Tomar also told reporters that getting the triple talaq bill, which stipulates a jail term for Muslim men accused of giving instant divorce to their wives, passed in Parliament was a top priority for the government.
Law minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, briefed party MPs on the Supreme Court’s judgment on the Rafale fighter jet deal, the conviction of Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case, besides the triple talaq legislation, Tomar said.
