RSS-BJP raising Ram temple issue now as Lok Sabha elections are near: Pravin Togadia

Pravin Togadia said the RSS is raising the issue now because elections are around the corner and the BJP government's performance is dismal.

Pravin Togadia. Photo: AFP

VADODARA: Firebrand Hindu leader Pravin Togadia feels the BJP and its ideological parent the RSS were raising the issue of construction of Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya now because of the Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May next year. Togadia questioned why an ordinance was not brought in the last four and a half years of BJP rule to settle the Ayodhya dispute. The RSS is raising the issue now because elections are around the corner and the BJP government's performance is dismal, Togadia, who quit the Vishwa Hindu Parishad earlier this year, alleged. Togadia's statement came in the wake of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday demanding a law to enable the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. Bhagwat demanded in his annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur that the Centre bring a law to pave the way for Ram temple. "Why the Ram Temple law was delayed for four and a half years despite BJP having a full majority in Parliament?" PTI quoted Togadia as saying in a statement. "After failure of the BJP-led government at the Centre on all fronts, and with elections approaching in several states and (for) Parliament in 2019, the issue of Ram temple is being raised," Togadia, who now heads the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad, said. Calling the BJP "RSS's party", he said its governments at the Centre and in states have "faltered on almost all promises of so-called development". Several sections of society are upset due to its "knee-jerk" policies, "so now the party and its mother organisation remember Bhagwan Ram?" the statement said. He alleged that earlier those who were pressing for a law for Ram temple were forced to remain silent. "In a special meeting called by RSS in Bhopal with us in October 2017, we were categorically told to shut up on the Ram temple law in Parliament," Togadia claimed. "For demanding the law, I and (other) Ram (temple) law supporters were punished by the same organisation," he said. The Centre should bring an ordinance for Ram temple immediately, he demanded.