Thaindian News

Nagpur, Feb 7 (IANS) With general elections round the corner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said the party was committed to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The Congress termed the promise a lie.
Addressing the BJP’s national council meeting here, party president Rajnath Singh said building a temple to Lord Ram was the party’s “nishtha and aastha (vow and aspiration)” and they were looking for an opportunity to build the temple at Ayodhya.

The BJP and other organisations have campaigned for the construction of a Ram temple where the Babri Masjid stood before it was demolished by fundamentalists in December 1992. They argue that the site is the birthplace of Hindu god Ram.

“We will build the Ram temple,” Singh said on the second day of the party conclave, adding that the BJP was waiting for an opportunity and would make a law when they come to power at the centre with a majority.

The BJP leader told a gathering of around 8,000 party workers that the party’s faith and reverence to Lord Ram could not be shaken.

Singh said no “mai ka lal” (no one on earth) could come in the way of the party’s vow to build a Ram temple.

The Congress dismissed Singh’s statement, saying the BJP “doesn’t intend to keep its promise” like its earlier pronouncements.

Congress leader Tom Vadakkan, in charge of the party’s media cell, described Rajnath’s statement as “yet another lie.”

“We have seen it happen earlier. It is yet again a lie,” Vadakkan said in New Delhi, reacting to the BJP president’s statement.

“The BJP doesn’t intend to build a temple. They are doing an injustice to the name of Ram, to the cause of Hinduism. They don’t intend to keep their promise. The people will give a fitting reply (to them during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections),” Vadakkan said.

The temple issue has been revived just as the Liberhan Commission, probing for the last 17 years the demolition of the Babri mosque, is preparing to submit its report.

The commission is expected to submit report before March 31, just before the general elections slated for April-May.

“I am in the right direction. Things are on track and since you have been patient all this while, why don’t you cooperate a little longer? I have time till March 31. So pray to God it is over soon,” Justice (Retd) M.S. Liberhan said Friday.