E-Paper
VHP gears up to stage show of strength in Ayodhya on November 25
The November 25 rally will be the biggest congregation of Ram Bhakts in Ayodhya after the kar seva, VHP regional spokesperson said Sharad Sharma. Officer bearers of the Parishad have already started arriving in Ayodhya and are camping in Karsevakpuram — the local headquarters of the VHP.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is preparing to stage a show of strength in Ayodhya this month, seeking to exert pressure on the Centre to introduce a legislation that will clear the way for the construction of a Ram temple on a site disputed by Hindus and Muslims.
It will be the largest congregation in Ayodhya since the ‘Kar seva’ on December 6, 1992, when a 16th century mosque at the site was demolished by a mob of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, and the ‘shila daan’ ceremony of March 2002, when carved stone pillars for a proposed Ram temple on the site were handed over to an emissary of the central government in a symbolic move.
A rally, ‘Dharam Sabha,’ will be organised in Ayodhya on November 25 to press demands for a legislation to pave the way for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya that Hindu groups say is the birthplace of Lord Ram. The VHP is working to mobilise over 100,000 people for the rally at Bada Bhaktmal ki Bagiya.
The November 25 rally (in Ayodhya) will be the biggest congregation of Ram Bhakts in Ayodhya after the kar seva, VHP regional spokesperson said Sharad Sharma.
Officer bearers of the Parishad have already started arriving in Ayodhya and are camping in Karsevakpuram — the local headquarters of the VHP.
“More than one lakh people will assemble in Ayodhya to attend ‘Dharam Sabha’. We want to send a clear message to the Centre that now Hindus want an ordinance or a law in Parliament for the construction of the Ram mandir in Ayodhya,” VHP’s international vice president, Champat Rai said.
The VHP has also planned similar public meetings in Nagpur and Bengaluru on November 25 and a rally in New Delhi on December 9.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Faizabad — recently renamed Ayodhya — Lallu Singh and the party MLAs are also extending a helping hand in preparations for the rally.
“The Ayodhya railway station will be one of the finest in the country. It will resemble the proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya,” Singh said.
The Supreme Court in October turned down requests for an early hearing in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title dispute and said the top court will decide the course of hearings in the first week of January. The court decision sparked calls by Hindu groups for a law to enable the construction of a temple at the site.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP is also helping the VHP to maximise the mobilisation of people to attend the Ayodhya congregation.
Senior RSS functionary Kaushal, who goes by one name, presided over a meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student wing of the RSS, at Karsevakpuram on Wednesday to review preparations for the rally.
Tej Narain Pandey, a former Samajwadi Party MLA from the seat, said, “BJP is again trying to raise the temple issue just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to polarise voters on communal lines.”
Prof Kaushal Kishore Mishra, of Banaras Hindu University’s political science department, said, “...this rally is a pressure tactic of the VHP and the RSS...to pave the way for the construction of Ram mandir [temple] in Ayodhya.”
