VHP confident of building Ram temple

New Delhi: In keeping with the BJP’s toned-down stance on the Ram mandir issue, Sangh Parivar affiliate VHP on Saturday said it is “totally optimistic” that the Narendra Modi-led government will build the temple keeping within the Constitutional framework but maintained that such things take time.

For the VHP, PM-designate Narendra Modi’s invitation to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend his swearing-in is a “formality” that should be allowed.

The VHP’s wishlist for the Modi government includes cleaning the Ganga, banning cow slaughter and autonomy for various temple trusts, including the proposed Ram mandir in Ayodhya, without government interference.

VHP patron Ashok Singhal said that absolute majority to the BJP under Mr Modi’s leadership stands for the triumph of the ideas and principles of Mahatma Gandhi’s concepts of Ram Rajya (welfare state) and suraajya (good governance).

The VHP, known to maintain an aggressive stand on the Ram mandir issue, likened the advent of Mr Modi to that of the resurrection of a Hindu rajya after Rajput ruler Prithviraj Chauhan’s rule in the 12th century. He said Hindutva is always secular as India’s motto is “vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the whole world is one family).”