The Hindu : Our fight not confined to Ram temple: VHP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 09, 2003

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Our fight not confined to Ram temple: VHP

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE JULY 8. The international secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Praveen Togadia, today warned that the VHP would not hesitate to "get the Union Government changed in a democratic way if it was needed to push its programme on the Ram temple."

Mr. Togadia said that in a democracy, everybody had the right to change the Government. The VHP would seek the support of all, including the Congress. Already 119 MPs had signed in support of legislation to build a Ram temple at Ayodhya," he said at a meet-the-press programme of the Kozhikode Press Club. Mr. Togadia said that legislation was a democratic way of solving the Ayodhya dispute. On July 11, the VHP would be holding a meeting of a high-power committee in Delhi to launch a "mass mobilisation" programme to garner support of the Hindus for its cause.

He said there had been a massive support to the VHP's recent signature campaign. About 10 crore signatures had been obtained in support of the VHP's demands. Everybody, except communists, were with the VHP, he claimed.

Mr. Togadia said "the VHP is for establishing a Hindu Rashtra. Our fight is not confined to the Ram temple but to establish a Rama Rajya. The Constitution may have to be amended for that purpose. But in such a set-up, Hindus and Muslims would have equal status". At present, Haj pilgrims were given Central subsidy. No such facility was given to Hindus for undertaking the Amarnath pilgrimage. "This cannot be allowed," he said. Mr. Togadia said rulers such as Shivaji and Ranjit Singh had established a Hindu Rashtra. No complaint of "persecution of minorities" were heard from there. Similar was the situation in Nepal which was also a Hindu Rashtra. This was because Hinduism was a way of life. He also said Muslim-majority countries often became theocratic States.

Mr. Togadia said that nothing fruitful would emerge from talks with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board because "it is made up of religious fundamentalists."

Talks to resolve the Ayodhya dispute must be held only with the elite among the Muslim community and not with the Law Board, Mr. Togadia said.

Since the AIMPLB consists of clergymen who were religious fundamentalists, they would not be able to offer a solution to the dispute, he said.

The VHP leader, who visited Marad which witnessed a communal carnage that claimed nine lives, said he was not against the Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, Sri Jayendra Saraswati, continuing his peace efforts.

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