The Hindu : Temple will be built, says Uma Bharti

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 25, 2002

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National

Temple will be built, says Uma Bharti

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE JUNE 24 . The Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Uma Bharti, has said that the Ram Temple will be built on the disputed site in Ayodhya, "respecting the sentiments of the people" and establishing the "supremacy of the Hindu religion."

Talking on "Who is communal'' — organised by the City-based forum, Manthana, here today, she accused "pseudo-secularists'' of stoking communalism which had finally manifested in the horrible events that shook Gujarat.

The Minister said Hinduism was and inured to attacks.

On the issue of conversions, she pointed out that Hinduism did not recognise any "conversion.''

She asked why it was necessary for Christian and Islamic clerics to "convert'' people to their faiths if they wanted their holy books to be read.

"I am no less a Hindu today for having read and understood the tenets of the Koran and the Bible, so there must be some shortcomings that followers of these faiths are embarrassed about, which is why they need to make an issue out of conversion.''

She justified her participation in the Ram temple shilanyas and the demolition of the Babri Masjid, saying that it was not "Ram Bhakti,'' but the desire to rectify an "historic wrong done to Hindus" that had driven her at the time.

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