RSS throws weight behind Prime Minister Modi on Ram temple issue

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 2

The RSS has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on the Ram temple calling it a positive one.

Endorsing the views expressed by the Prime Minister in his New Year interview on Tuesday, the BJP’s ideological fountainhead called it a reiteration of the BJP’s Palampur resolution where it had said that the party would try to build the temple through dialogue or legislation.

The statement issued by top Sangh leader Dattatreya Hosabale said that the BJP’s manifesto for the 2014 general election under Modi had also promised that the BJP would make all attempts to build the temple in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution.

“The people of the country had trusted him and supported the BJP with majority. That this government keep its promise in its tenure is what the people also wanted,” said Hosabale.

The carefully-nuanced statement by the RSS is quite different from the rhetoric launched by the affiliate VHP demanding legislation or an ordinance to facilitate the temple.

Modi on Tuesday categorically said that the government would await the Supreme Court verdict on the issue as he urged all parties to cooperate to complete the judicial process without any hurdles, while making a distinction in the differentiated approach of the BJP towards the triple talaq and Sabarimala verdicts.

Hosabale said the Prime Minister was acting as per the BJP’s 1989 Palampur resolution and the manifesto for the 2014 general election.

There are speculations in political circles of a breakthrough in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case in Ayodhya ahead of the general election.

The VHP has been pushing for an early hearing in order to resolve the issue.

On January 4, the Supreme Court is likely to constitute a three-judge Bench for hearing on as many as 14 appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court judgment.