'People won't rest till temple is bulit'

Advani favoured a solution that fosters an atmosphere of communal harmony and amity in the country.

BJP President LK Advani on Thursday said the people of the country would not rest until a grand Ram Temple is built at the disputed site in Ayodhya and favoured a solution that fosters an atmosphere of communal harmony and amity in the country.

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"I assure you that the people will not rest until a grand Ram Temple is constructed at the disputed site in Ayodhya in place of the makeshift temple", Advani said while addressing party workers after appearing in a special court for framing of charges in the Ayodhya demolition case.

Citing the example of the Somnath temple in Gujarat, Advani said the Ram temple could have been be built by a decision of the Union Cabinet as was done in the case of former but hastened to add it was not possible in the present regime more so because it is surviving with the support of Left parties.

Another solution of the problem could be a decision by the court but again the same could be challenged in a higher court and the matter would linger on, he said.

"There are people who say if the Muslims voluntarily give up their claim on the land a solution can be found", he said adding he felt it was possible.

"If it happens it will not only pave the way for the construction of a Ram temple in deference to the wishes of crores of people but also foster an atmosphere of harmony and amity", the BJP leader said.

He said the problem of Ram temple is not confined only to Hindus but is a problem of the whole country.

The BJP president said his objective was not only to built a Ram temple at Ayodhya but also to defeat the 'pseudo-secularists' who indulged in the 'politics of vote bank'.

The failure of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to visit Ayodhya after the terrorist attack at the Ram Janambhoomi complex reflected their 'distorted mentality', he said.

Referring to the debates in Parliament during its ongoing monsoon session, Advani lamented that neither the Congress nor the Left parties spoke on the infiltration of Bangladeshis in Assam, which, he said, posed a serious threat to national security.

The Congress and the Left kept have been saying no Indian citizen should be deported and were not bothered about the large scale influx, he said adding they were not expected to oppose it as the immigrants were their vote bank.

Recalling his 'rathyatra' from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in 1990, the BJP leader said he chose Somnath, as it was the place where for the first time the Government of India had taken a decision to restore an ancient temple.

Advani said after the Union Cabinet had decided to restore the Somnath temple, Patel had met Mahatma Gandhi, who gave his blessings but suggested that the expenditure of the restoration work should not be borne by the Government but by the people.

"A trust was then floated for the purpose of collecting donations for restoration of the Somnath temple", he said.

The BJP leader said when the Britishers left India they not only divided the country into two parts but also sowed the seeds of further divisions by leaving it upon the 503 princely states to decide their future.

It had been left to the states to either merge with India or Pakistan or even maintain their independent identity, he said adding the then princely state of Junagarh in Gujarat had declared that it would merge with Pakistan.