New Delhi: With the Supreme Court clearing the decks for the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is planning a fortnight-long nation-wide campaign to mark the Ramotsav Pakhvada this year from March 24.
The campaign will also include reaching out to karsevaks, who participated in the Ramjanam-bhoomi movement, and devotees who had offered shilas (bricks or any kind of material) for the temple.
Indications from the VHP camp suggest that it wants the construction to begin from Ramnavami in April.
But only the Ram Mandir trust, as ordered by the apex court to oversee the construction, will take a final call.
The trust is yet to be set up.
Last month, BJP national president and Union home minister Amit Shah asserted that a “sky-touching Ram mandir would come up in Ayodhya in four months.”
The VHP has been the flagbearer among the Rashtriya Swayansevak Sangh-led Sangh Parivar for the construction of the temple.
Ahead of the apex court’s landmark verdict in the politically sensitive case in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and many others had appealed to the people for maintaining peace and harmony, with the RSS, barring its affiliates, including the VHP, to take out any procession, either in favour or against the verdict, and had asserted that whatever the verdict it should be “accepted wholeheartedly by everyone.”
Though the fortnight long celebration, ahead of Ramnavami, is an annual feature in the Sangh Parivar calendar, this year it will be “special.”
While the VHP affiliated Dharmsansad — a conglomerate of saints and seers from across the nation — will give a final shape to the campaign during their three-day long meet in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh from January 20, the VHP has already asked its cadre to reach out to all karsevaks, who participated in the Ramjanambhoomi movement, which led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid at the disputed site.
The campaign will also see VHP cadre reaching out to those, who offered or sent Ram shilas for the construction of the temple during the movement.
The shilas — bricks with Sri Ram inscribed on them — were collected from across the country in 1989 just before the shilanyas took place in Ayodhya, which the VHP and the Dharamsansad wants to be used in the foundation of the temple.
