VHP says preparations on, Ram Mandir will be ready in four months if SC gives nod – The Economic Times
AYODHYA: Preparations are on to build a temple at Ram janmabhoomi soon after the Supreme Court rules on the matter, the Vishva Hindu Parishad has said days ahead of the polling in Ayodhya.
“The Ram Mandir will be ready in just four months. We are only waiting for the court’s aadesh (verdict) to begin work,” said Sudarshan Maharaj, who heads the VHP unit in Ayodhya, where voting is due on February 27.
The Supreme Court had stayed the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict, which declared Hindus and Muslims joint title-holders of the disputed site in Ayodhya which is revered by many as the deity’s birthplace, and agreed to hear appeals against it.
VHP, part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has been at the forefront of the agitation to build a Ram temple at the spot where the Babri mosque, built in 1528, was demolished by a crowd of Hindu activists in 1992. The temple also figures among BJP’s promises in its manifesto for the ongoing assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya has always elected a BJP leader except once, in 2012.
Maharaj’s confidence does not appear misplaced.
Hundreds of stone pillars crafted in Bharatpur lie stacked in VHP’s Ram Mandir Karyalaya, a workshop right next to the makeshift Ram Lalla temple which is guarded fiercely by central forces. The workshop has stones and pillars of various sizes stored for the construction of the temple in the future. The stones had started arriving in 1992 and this continued till December 2015.
“It will take us only two days to transport the stones… 70% of the preparations for building the temple are already over,” said Swadesh Singh, who takes care of the workshop.
The sanctum sanctorum will be built from age-old marble, he said. “The stones are numbered according to the planned structure, so it won’t take any time to place them. Once the (Supreme Court) order comes, there will be a tsunami of people coming.
Na labour ki zaroorat hogi, na paison ki. Jan abhiyan hoga, Hindu samaj ka (Neither labour nor money will be needed. It will be a mass campaign of Hindus),” Singh said. “If the BJP gets the majority and if the court order is favourable, it won’t take even ayear for the temple to be ready and it will be the best in the world.”
Apart from two floors envisaged by the VHP, the plan for the proposed temple includes a Ved pathshala, or school for Vedas, and culture training centre. Groups of devotees arrive every other day from places as far as Nepal and Jammu & Kashmir to enquire about the temple, Singh said.
Agroup of devotees queued up to have a look at the model of the temple kept in a glass box. They offered prayers even as Singh urged them to focus on the red light inside the model, which is where the deity will finally reside. “Do visit Ram Lalla temple before you leave this town, otherwise you will feel incomplete all your life. Mandir wahin banega (That is where the temple will be built),” he said.
An adjoining wall has pictures of Kothari bandhu, two young RSS workers who died in police firing during the agitation and a brief history of “how Babri masjid was a bhavya (grand) Ram janmasthal(birthplace) before it was raided” and converted into a mosque that was subsequently demolished.
