BJP failure on Ram temple issue flayed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 1. Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Jyotish and Dwarka Sharda Peeth, today asked the Government to allow the ``dharmacharyas'' to construct a Ram temple in Ayodhya in the wake of the failure of the Bharatiya Janata Party to fulfill its promise.

Calling upon the heads of different religious sects to rise above sectarian affiliations, the Shankaracharya asked them to raise funds for constructing the temple and hoped that no political party would try and take mileage out of it.

Coming down heavily on the ruling party at the Centre, the Shankaracharya said it had politicised the issue by first promising the construction of the temple and then sending the matter to court for a resolution. ``The politicians have misled the nation. They said they would build the temple once they came to power at the Centre, but now they are keeping quiet.''

On the recent statement of the BJP president that the party had not raised the temple-masjid issue, the Swami said it was the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani - then party president - who took out a ``rath yatra'' from Puri in support of the temple but was arrested en route.

The BJP was maintaining a stoic silence over banning cow slaughter and was turning a blind eye towards the state of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits and repealing of Article 370, which were high on its agenda before coming to power, he said. ``If a Hindu suffers, there is no one to speak for him but if the minority community is at the receiving end, everyone is ready to take up the issue,'' he added.

Supporting the U.P. Religious Places Regulation Bill, Swami Swaroopanand said when there was no opposition to the Bill in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, there was no reason for its criticism in Uttar Pradesh.

``After all, it is the Government which passes the building plans of all religious places and therefore has the authority to check the kind of activities being carried out inside the building''. This, he said, would put a check on terrorist activities being encouraged in such places.

The Government's decision to take over the Kalka temple in South Delhi also came under severe criticism from the Shankaracharya who felt it was unfair to take over temples with high revenues while there were thousands of others which needed urgent repair and development.

Regarding the review of Constitution, the Shankaracharya said it had been amended many times in the past also and there had been no opposition.

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Section  : National
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