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Ram temple, Article 370 on VHP meet agenda
The event, which comes shortly after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance assumed office, is expected to take up the issue of the Ram temple construction, said a senior VHP functionary.
The demand for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the proposed citizenship amendment bill, the scrapping of Article 35A and Article 370 pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir and cow protection are among the issues that are likely to come up at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s meeting in Hardwar on Wednesday and Thursday.
The meeting of the Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal (KMM) of the VHP, an offshoot off the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party — is held annually in Haridwar and is attended by Hindu saints. The KMM is the highest decision-making body of the VHP. The event, which comes shortly after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance assumed office, is expected to take up the issue of the Ram temple construction, said a senior VHP functionary.
Last year, even as the government asserted that it would let the Supreme Court take the final call; the VHP pushed the government to bring a bill for the construction of the temple, pointing out that the issue has been pending for long. With the BJP having returned to power at the Centre with a thumping majority, there is a view within some sections of the VHP and the RSS that the government should take the first steps by bringing a legislation.
Rakesh Sinha, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, had announced last year that he would move a private member’s bill on the issue, as the RSS and the VHP raised the pitch for the temple. However, the bill was not even listed for consideration. Bills introduced by members of Parliament who are not holding any ministerial position in Union Cabinet are called private members bills.
