AYODHYA - WHICH WAY TO GO ?

Talks By
Pujya Swami Vishweshathirtha, Pejawara Matha, Udupi

Dr. pravin togadiya, International General Secretary, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
July 18, 2003.

ANUGRAHA BHASHANA
PUJYA SWAMI VISHWESHATHIRTHA, PEJAWARA MATHA, UDUPI
PI cannot speak Tamil well enough to deliver this talk and if I were to speak in Kannada, many of you may not understand it. Therefore, I will place some thoughts before you in Hindi. The Ramjanmabhumi movement is not merely for the purpose of building the temple in Ayodhya. Temple building is not the sole objective of this movement. Gandhij did not march to Dandi during the salt satyagraha with a view to manufacturing salt. The Salt Satyagraha was symbolic of Gandhiji’s resolve to fight for India’s swarajya. Similarly the Ramjanmabhumi movement is not a movement for the construction of the temple, it is a movement symbolic of Hindu resurgence. The Ramjanmabhumi movement, besides being a movement to liberate Rama’s birthplace, also signals the rebirth of Hindu society – a Hindu society strong and resurgent. We can end the injustice and attacks against the Hindu society only through the Ramjanmabhumi movement whose objective goes beyond building the temple in Ayodhya and is intended to be the rebirth of Hindu society.

This is a gold opportunity for the Muslims. By removing all obstacles in the path of the Ramjanmabhumi movement, a new era of friendship and goodwill may begin between the Hindus and Muslims of this nation. It causes me deep sorrow that the Muslims do not see this as an opportunity to create this goodwill. Our so-called secularists always have plenty of good advice to dole out to Hindu sants and the strongest language of condemnation for Hindu organizations. But the same secularists do not advice the Muslims to respect the sensitivities of the Hindus and allow the construction of the Ram temple. They also do not have the courage to condemn in forthright terms acts of terrorism against the state and civil society. But these secularists march forward enthusiastically to condemn Hindutva. The intensity of Hindutva is nothing compared to the face of global Islamic terrorism as we know it today. They are not prepared to condemn or even acknowledge the frightening extent of jihadi terrorism. I would tell my Muslim brothers not to repose too much faith in secularists and secular politicians but to have faith in Hindu society and allow the construction of the Ram temple. I can assure them that with this gesture, we can usher in a new beginning for the nation in Hindu-Muslim relations.

I would like to remind the Bharatiya Janata Party that you have committed yourself to the Ramjanmabhumi movement and to building the temple. On this issue, you must try to win the confidence of the Hindu community and conduct yourself in the main in a manner that satisfies the Hindus. But I have been saddened by the fact that the BJP has not made any effort at all to fulfil its promises to the Hindu community with regard to the Ramjanmabhumi movement. The BJP’s symbol is the lotus. And when can the Lotus bloom? Only in the warmth of the sun. The BJP’s growth too is possible only with the blessings of the Suryavanshi Srirama. Not under the moon. Not under the moon. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bharatiya Hriday Kamal will bloom only with the Suryavanshi’s anugraha. Just as Pravinbhaiji pointed out, the judiciary cannot decide on the title suit of what is to the Hindus, a matter of faith – about the birthplace of Srirama. It is also not a matter for the judiciary. Better than the courts will be the people’s court, people’s verdict on this issue. Keeping in mind the people’s wishes with regard to the Ram temple, it is important that we march forward with great determination to build the temple on the site of Ramjanmasthan. The more the secularists and the Muslims obstruct this march, that much faster will the temple be built, I can assure you; and the more they resist the building of the temple in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura will be liberated that much sooner.

For our task to be accomplished without more delay, it is necessary that we strengthen the passion for Hindutva in the minds of Hindus. Hindus must be united on Hindutva not just for building the Ram temple but to achieve all that we have decided upon through the Ramjanmabhumi movement. Just as Bhagwan Srikrishna lifted the Govardhan with his little finger, it behooves all Hindus to collectively lift up the Govardhan of Hindu dharma. This can be done only through Hindu unity. We must no longer look to politicians to serve the Hindu cause. When Hindus march forward with great determination, these politicians have to fall in line behind us. I pray to the divine that this wish may be realised soon.

AYODHYA – POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
DR. PRAVIN TOGADIYA, INTERNATIONAL GENERAL SECRETARY, VISHWA HINDU PARISHAD

Parampujaniya, Jagadguru Madhwacharya Pejawar Swami, Shri Vishwesha Thirtha ji Maharaj, Radha Rajan ji, and dear brothers and sisters. Before going into details of the Ram temple movement, I think we have to understand the larger context in which this movement is located. We are people of the most ancient civilization of the world and we have evolved our value system which is not only unique but it also serves all universe. For the first time in history, after the arrival of Islam in India, we have been exposed to a civilization which has a completely different value system. We must accept that there are differences in world-view. Our value system is pluralistic, inclusive, tolerant and non-violent. We are a people who historically and traditionally never attacked civil society even in times of war. Our encounter with Islam has been an encounter with a world-view that is exclusive, mono-culture, totalitarian, violent and with a single-point agenda – to establish dar-ul-islam throughout the world.

It was only after the advent of Islam into India that Indian society began to first experience attacks against civil society during war. The Ramjanmabhumi movement is a manifestation of the clash between two civilizations. Why do we want a temple in Ayodhya, the birth-place of Srirama? Firstly, we want it because we want to settle once and for all times this clash of civilizations on Indian soil. Secondly, this is the only country in the world where people of this country have two views on nationality. Nowhere in the world would you find people of a country having two divergent views on the fundamental issue of nationality. Whenever I am asked the question about what is my problem with the Muslims of this country, I tell them: in the Jew-German paradigm of war, the Jews and Germans were from two distinct ethnic stocks. They are two different races. Is the same true of Indian Muslims? We are ethnically the same, of the same stock. Then how can the Muslims of India empathise with a Babur, Aurangazeb and a Ghazni? The Muslims today are not responsible for the barbarity and atrocities committed by these foreign invaders against the Hindus; but Muslims today must acknowledge that atrocities were perpetrated by these invaders against the Hindus, against this civilization and they must repent for the thousands of temples destroyed by 800 years of Muslim rule in India. Indian Muslims must distance themselves, dis-associate themselves from these medieval invaders.

My problem with the Muslim leadership is that far from distancing themselves from the actions of these invaders, they are actually being glorified, their memories are being perpetuated. Now let us all imagine the completely impossible. That the mosque in Mecca had been destroyed by invading Hindus some centuries ago and that on the Meccasharif we had built a Ram temple. Let us also imagine that Saudi Arabia as an Islamic nation being ruled by Muslims, we the Hindu minorities continue to resist and protest any attempt by the Muslims of saudi Arabia to re-build their mosque in the holy city of Mecca. Can any Muslim imagine a scenario where this has happened and that Hindus insist that there will be no mosque on that site but only a Ram temple? If the very thought is an insult to Muslims, then how can they dare to insist that Hindus cannot build a temple in the birth-place of Srirama and that they have the right to build mosques and offer namaz in holy Hindu temple cities like Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura? How can they dare? By continuing to remain obstinate on Ayodhya and by refusing to vacate Mathura and Varanasi, the Muslims have shown that they have no repentance for what these invaders did, their so-called co-religionists and have no empathy for their Hindu ancestors who were victims of these barbarians.

The Ram temple movement is here to defeat this attitude of the Muslims. It is not merely a question of constructing the temple in Ayodhya, it is a movement to ensure that no one ever dares in the future to destroy even one temple in Bharat. And we have to defeat this intolerance, this violent mono-culture mentality if only to make sure that no Ghazni or Aurangazeb is born on Indian soil.

Thirdly, this movement has a political dimension. In 1908, Lord Minto introduced separate electorates for the Muslims of Bharat. The first person to oppose separate electorates for the Muslims was the architect/founder of Pakistan – Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Jinnah opposed it on the grounds that the British were seeking to divide the Indian people on the basis of religion. In 1920, the Khilafat andolan in Bharat started in response to the defeat of the Dar-ul-Islam of Turkey. Turkey was defeated by the British and the caliph of Turkey was forced to go into exile in Switzerland. Who was this caliph? He was the symbol of Islamic theocracy, he was the symbol of a theocratic State. After the flight of the caliph to Switzerland, the Turkish people were not demanding the return of theocracy, Indian Muslims were demanding it. And Indian Muslims, the same fundamentalist Mulla/Moulvis were demanding an Islamic theocracy, not in Bharat, but in Turkey! And Mahatma Gandhi supported the Khilafat movement. This support by Gandhi for the Indian Muslims’ demand to restore the Caliphate in Turkey marked the turning point in Bharat’s history, when we gave the fundamentalist Mullas and Moulvis the power of veto. And this support extended by Gandhi ji to these fundamentalist elements in the Muslim community marginalised the moderates and the modern among them like Jinnah effectively after that.

Indian Muslims had rejected the original national flag of independent Bharat – the saffron flag, they have rejected the Vande Mataram, they demanded and got Sindh excluded from a united Bombay Province and this later facilitated the isolated Sindh from becoming a part of the Pakistani state during partition. We have acceded to each and every demand of the Muslims with regard to the political arrangements both in J&K and in the rest of India even from pre-independence days. This has effectively given the mulla/moulvi/fundamentalist Muslims the power of veto. And this power was first given to them by the mahatma at the time of the khilafat movement, and it is this power of veto which has characterised the Hindu-Muslim equation in India and it is this power of veto which ultimately led to the creation of the Islamic State of Pakistan from the body of Bharat.

Post independence democratic Indian polity has seen the continuance of this Muslim power of veto. The Muslim veto continues to dictate and define Indian polity even today. Nowhere in the world, not even in Muslim countries is there a subsidy for Haj. Why should the Indian government give 22,500 rupees to every Muslim undertaking the Haj by way of subsidy? Muslim veto. We cannot teach the Gita and the Ramayana in public schools receiving grant from the government, but the same government can and has given grants to madarasas to teach the Koran! And when the Apex Court delivered the judgement in the Shah Bano case ordering the husband to pay alimony to Shah Bano an old Muslim woman divorced arbitrarily through the triple talaq, the same mulla/moulvi/Muslim fundamentalists demanded an amendment to the constitution to overturn the Supreme Court judgement. The same political leaders are advising the Hindus, asking the VHP to accept the judicial verdict, to abide the interim orders of the Supreme Court. The political class which surrendered the dignity of our courts to Islamic zealots wants the Hindus to accept a judicial verdict.

It is this situation which has led to the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the Kashmir valley and this ethnic cleansing is happening now in Jammu and even in other parts of India wherever Muslims constitute the majority population even at the level of a village. Mahatma Gandhi’s handing the power of veto to the Muslims created Pakistan and the continuing Muslim veto has led to ethnic cleansing in the Kashmir valley in post-independent India. The time has come to end this veto once and for all times. The Ram temple movement is here to end this Muslim veto. The question arises, why are you insisting on this temple on that spot alone? There are so many temples in Bharat and in Ayodhya. People fail to understand that this is not a fight for the temple only, it is a fight for the temple on the birthplace. The birthplace of Bhagwan Sriram. You cannot shift the birthplace of ordinary humans. I told the same thing to Prabhu Chawla in ‘seedhi baat’. He told me, he was born in Pakistan and there is nothing he can do about it. Exactly. I asked him if he could alter his birthplace from Pakistan to Bharat. If a human being cannot alter his birthplace, how can there be a demand to build this temple on another spot?

This is therefore not a fight for the temple only, it is a fight for temple in the birthplace of Srirama. Why are we asking for Kashi and Mathura? I think we made a mistake. Why did we ask for three only. It is a historical fact, documented in Muslim chronicles that thousands of Hindu temples were destroyed. I can say for I have seen that the Jamma Masjid of Ahmedabad was a MahaKali mandir, Jamma Masjids of Janakpur, of Bhopal were all temples, the mosque near the Kutub Minar was raised after destroying 24 Jain temples. There are thousands of such instances in Bharat where mosques have been raised either on the places of destroyed Hindu and Jain temples or to commemorate the destruction. Prafull Goradia has recently published a book titled “Hindu-Masjid’. There are beautiful photographs in that book of the many mosques in Bharat which the Muslims have not razed to the ground like they usually do but have retained the structure of the temple and merely converted them into mosques. Over 30,000 temples have been destroyed in the last 800 years. It is our right now to demand those temples back. When Muslims demanded Pakistan and got it, the Hindus of Bharat gave away millions of square kilometers of our land to them. we are now demanding that they return a few thousand square feet occupied by them as invaders. We have the right to demand the return of our 30,000 temples. Even the VHP which is more aggressive than other Hindu organizations, even we have not officially demanded the return of 30,000 temples. We are generous, we are demanding the return of only three. Why only Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya? Because these are the birthplaces of Bhagwan Shankar, Srikrishna and Srirama.

How can the Muslims even think of asking Hindus to surrender and sacrifice these three important sites? Are they prepared to renounce all claim to the birthplace of their Prophet Mohammad? And that is why in 1984 the first Dharmasansad held in Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi passed the first resolution which demanded the return of Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya. And that is why there is no question of giving up our demand for the liberation of Kashi and Mathura because for us Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya are non-negotiable. When the Vice-Chairman of the Muslim Personal Law Board held discussions with me on the 7th of this month, he asked me if it is not possible to resolve this issue with a mutual give and take. I told him his ancestors had destroyed over 30,000 temples, now he can give us 15,000 of those temples. He could give back at least 50% of what has been taken from us, I told him. that would be a proper give and take.

No one in this country has the courage to ask the Muslims how they can dare to hold on to the birthplace of Lord Rama. Are the claims of the Hindus and Muslims in Bharat the same over the birthplace of Srirama, the Ramjanmabhumi? The claim of the Hindus is rooted in the intense devotion that Hindus have in Bhagwan Srirama. It is a matter of faith for us that he was born on that very spot in Ayodhya. The claim to the site of the Muslims on the other hand is rooted in the act of atrocity by the invader Babur. An act of atrocity. Can the claim of the Hindus be equated to the claims of the Muslims when it comes to the birthplace of Srirama?

I also believe that a judicial verdict on the issue of title to the site will also not settle the issue. Why? I believe that in a secular, democratic polity, the judiciary is an important pillar and without an independent judiciary, a democratic, political civil society cannot survive. So the dignity of the judiciary must be respected and upheld. But nowhere is the world, in no country is the judiciary called upon to settle issues of faith. The question of the Ramjanmabhumi is not a simple issue of a title suit. The judiciary can settle ordinary title suits. But not this one which is a matter of faith for the Hindus of Bharat. Let us assume that some day the judiciary will deliver the verdict that the place should be handed over to the Hindus. That will be well and good. But let us assume that the verdict goes the other way and the judiciary orders the site to be handed over to the Muslims, will anyone in Bharat dare to remove the idol of Bhagwan Srirama from the temple that now stands there? Will anyone have the courage to execute the court orders? No one will dare, will be prepared to remove Bhagwan Srirama from his birthplace. Let us assume also that someone will do it. After all Babur did it. He destroyed a temple in Ayodhya to build this mosque. It was Babur who took adverse possession of the site that belonged to Hindus. And when he took adverse possession of our temple, was our faith shaken? Did we forsake our claim to Ramjanmabhumi? Can our faith be destroyed by the principle of ‘adverse possession’ in law or by the fact of adverse possession by Babur? If our faith had been shaken, if our resolve to reclaim Ramjanmabhumi had ever been shaken would we still be fighting to liberate Ayodhya from Muslim occupation?

The judiciary an decide title suit; but the judiciary cannot sit in judgement about faith. The Christian community has a deep faith in the immaculate conception of Jesus Christ just as the Muslims have faith in the fact that Prophet Mohammad ascended to Heaven on horse-back. Will the Christians or Muslims ever agree to any judiciary pronouncing on these articles of faith? If not then how can the Christians and Muslims and the seculars who are also advocating that the Hindus abide by the court verdict, expect the Hindus to consent to the judiciary pronouncing on the Ramjanmabhumi? The judiciary has no role in this regard. The judiciary has an important role in civil society in a democratic polity, but not here, in the issue of deciding on the ownership of Ramjanmabhumi.

In 1984, a person by the name Chandmal Chopra filed a petition in the Kolkata High Court demanding the banning of the Koran. The Kolkata High Court dismissed the case because the court declared that it will not entertain the issue because the Koran is a matter of faith for millions of Muslims. If the Koran is a matter of faith for Muslims and therefore the courts will not entertain any issue pertaining to the Koran, then Ramjanmabhumi is a matter of faith of hundreds of millions of Hindus past and present. Then how can the judiciary sit in judgement over that alone? The judiciary can listen, it can question, it can agree, disagree, it can order excavations in Ayodhya but it cannot decide on articles of faith. And that Bhagwan Sriram was born on that spot in Ayodhya cannot be judged by the judiciary.

Now coming to negotiated settlement. With whom? Same mulla/moulvi? To whom we gave the veto power at the time of the khilafat movement? Which resulted in the Moplah violence, in partition? What is this Muslim Personal Law Board? It is an organization of mullas and moulvis. The Ram temple movement ahs finished the Muslim veto. And this was done with the blessings of our sadhus and sants and our dharmacharyas. I strongly object, on ideological as well as historical grounds, I strongly object to talk to or negotiate with any mulla or moulvi on Ramjanmabhumi, Kashi or Mathura. And if any institution or organization insists on talking to these mullas and moulvis on the issue of Ram temple, I will only say they are committing the same historic blunder of handing back to the mullas and moulvis the Muslim religious veto power which will continue to dictate our polity. And let me tell you, support to one khilafat movement led to one Pakistan, and continuing support to mullas and moulvis will lead to ten other Pakistans. Yes, we can talk to the Muslims of India; I am not saying we should not talk to the Muslims, we should talk to them, to the Muslim elite, professionals, social leaders, intellectuals. but we will not negotiate on Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura with the mulla/moulvi/fundamentalist groups.

Islamic terrorism as we see it today has its locus in Dar-ul-uloom Deoband in Bharat. When the Moghul empire was collapsing the Moulvi Shah Waleullah. Muslim chronicles themselves tell us that it was Shah Waleullah who called upon Ahmed Shah Abdali to invade Bharat to establish Dar-ul-Islam here. In the Battle of Panipat that followed Sadashiv Bhau was defeated, Delhi was sacked and over one lakh people killed. It was Shah Waleullah’s son Shah Aziz’s disciple who established the Deobandi Dar-ul-uloom with the sole objective of converting Bharat from Dar-ul-harb into a dar-ul-Islam. It was the ideology of Deobandi Islam, committed to pan-Islamism which created the Taliban in Afghanistan. And look at who has come into India today for talks. The same Islamic fundamentalist leader belonging to the Muttahida-majlis-e amal in Pakistan, Fazlur Rehman, a close personal friend of the Taliban chief Mullah Omar, has been given a red-carpet welcome in Bharat. He has dared to come to Delhi, has dared to visit the dar-ul-uloom in Deoband. What is the message that you are giving? A person who has had a hand in the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, a person who will not tolerate a non-Muslim in keeping with his politico-religious ideology, he has been allowed to enter Bharat! Whatever we are trying to achieve through the Ram temple movement, the Indian polity is bent on nullifying it.

Again in the name of the Ram temple, there are moves to compromise the objectives we have set for ourselves and I am afraid the very nature of the compromises that we are hearing about is threatening our very future. We are once again seeing the same kind of khilafat supporting leadership. A friend of the Taliban, himself a Pakistani fundamentalist Muslim has been invited to come to Bharat for talks, and he has been emboldened to address a press conference. To what levels are we sinking. Had the Muslims of Bharat a true understanding of our common history, then they would not deny that we are ethnically the same stock, and they would never take sides with medieval Muslim invaders against their own people even if we are Hindus. The resistance of Indian Muslims to the Ram temple on the janmasthan, the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the Kashmir valley, the creation of Pakistan are all manifestations of the malaise of the mind-set of the Indian Muslims. All these problems have been created because of the fundamental attitude of intolerance of the Indian Muslims to anything Hindu. They cannot seem to accept the fact that they are the progeny of Hindus. And as long as Indian Muslims cannot link themselves to their Hindu past, if they refuse to acknowledge their Hindu ancestors, the Hindu-Muslim problem in India will never be resolved.

One of my friends, a Muslim gynecologist, lost everything in the riots that followed the Godhra carnage – his clinic, home and even hospital, he lost everything. When I heard this I went to his home. He asked me why this happened and what he could have done. I asked him why he had never bothered to re-connect with the Rajputs. He was a Rajput converted to Islam. And with his becoming a Muslim, his connections with the Rajput clan were severed. I told him, had he retained his links with the Rajputs even though he is a Muslim, the Hindu Rajputs would have protected him. but if instead of retaining ancestral ties you want to retain only your Muslim identity, who will protect you? You have to choose, I told him. We have never opposed your method of worship. We do not care if you worship this or that. But we do oppose your denying your past, our common history, and your denying that we are ethnically the same. Our ancestors are the same. Why are you dis-connecting yourself from your fathers and fore-fathers?

If through the Ram temple movement we fail to change this mind-set of the Muslims, Hindu-Muslim relationship in Bharat will always be troubled. Whenever we raise the ram temple, people ask us what about economic development? This nation should focus on economic development instead of issues like building a temple in Ayodhya. The World Trade Center. Was it not the symbol of economic development? Did that prevent a Muslim terrorist attack? And how many people did it take to destroy this world financial nerve-centre ? Only seventeen. And here we have a dar-ul-uloom in Deoband, a Tabliq-I- jammat as recruiting centers for the Al-Qaeda. Not seventeen, you can get seventeen thousand to destroy your center of economic development. Economic development is a must but it can be second only to security and survival. And this is a question of the survival of this nation of Hindus. And we can deal effectively with this threat only through the Ram temple movement. I believe that if the Muslims of the country come forward and tell us that they are willingly giving up all claim to Ramjanmabhumi because they know they have no right to it, that day we will be able to build the temple in Ayodhya and on that day we will be able to resolve the Hindu-Muslim divide.

The third option is legislation. To those people who have been saying that the Hindus and the VHP must accept judicial verdict, my response is why are you insisting that graduation is possible only through the Madras university? Can’t I graduate from the Delhi or the Banaras university? There are three pillars in a democracy – legislative, executive, judiciary. You propose a judicial solution, I propose a legislative solution. By proposing a judicial solution, you may challenge my faith that Srirama was born on that spot only, but you will not solve the problem. The problem will remain. By proposing a legislative solution, you will at least respect my faith. Unfortunately, Indian polity has surrendered itself to the Muslim vote bank. In India, 85% of the Hindus who constitute the majority population are still weak politically whereas the 12% Muslims who are numerically in the minority have a greater say in Indian polity than the Hindus. And that is why no political part has the courage to pass legislation on Ramjanmabhumi. And the party with which we are ideologically affiliated, also has no trust in the strength of the Hindu dharma. I don’t know if they trust Hindus to put them in power. Hindu dharma, Hindu society has survived one thousand years of Muslim invaders and barbaric Muslim rule. Hindu society has never surrendered completely to any invading power. If any political leader will come forward and has the courage to commit himself/herself to building the temple through the legislative route, is ready to deal with the Hindu-Muslim problem, is prepared to correct the separatist attitude of a section of the Muslims, ready to give long-lasting peace to Hindu society by declaring Bharat to be a Hindu rashtra, the Hindu society will give them a clear and winning majority.

The issue is no longer confined to building the Ram temple. The issue has gone far beyond that. The issue is now linked to terrorism. There is no difference between Babur, Aurangazeb and Osama bin Laden. The difference is only in place and time. Terrorism has reached every corner of our nation. Only the construction of the Ram temple, and a political resolve on the part of our leaders like that of Ariel Sharon and Putin can solve this problem. We need Shivaji, we need Ariel Sharon, we need leaders like Putin. We need to talk in a language the Muslims will understand. We are talking in a language that encourages fundamentalism and terrorism against Hindus. We are asking Musharraf not to send terrorists into India. From where in Pakistan are these terrorists emerging? They are emerging from Pakistani madarasas. Is the curriculum in an Indian and Pakistani madarasa different. It is not different. If Pakistani madarasas can create Masood Azhar and Mulla Omar. Then why not Indian madarasas? We are not prepared to address ourselves to this question. The Ram temple movement has now acquired a new dimension, that of Islamic jihadi terrorism. And with this tied the question of Hindu survival. It is for this reason that we are insisting that parliament pass legislation on Ramjanmabhumi to facilitate the construction of the temple. If parliament is unable to pass the legislation because this political party or that is not ready to do so, then we will mobilise the masses. We will mobilise the Hindu society. The temple will be constructed at Ramjanmabhumi and grand temples will be constructed in Kashi and Mathura also. We will defeat jihadi terrorism decisively.

I have been travelling extensively in the last two years to very corner of Bharat and I know the heart-beat and the pulse of the Hindus. I have read the eyes of the Hindus and I know we are ready to move forward collectively. And if political parties and politicians are not ready to commit themselves to the Hindu cause, they will be marginalised. The road to Delhi will henceforth pass only through Ayodhya. I have tremendous faith Hindu dharma and in Hindu society. There is no question of compromise on this issue. We will not accept that the Muslims can come forward to ‘gift’ or ‘donate’ this land. Ramjanmabhumi does not belong to the Muslims for them to gift it or donate it to us. They have no claim at all. The Muslims will have to unconditionally surrender all claim to Kashi, Mathua and Ayodhya. They have nothing to do with the birthplace of Rama. If after a mass movement, some parliament is ready to pass legislation on Ayodhya, then why Ayodhya alone. People’s pressure will compel the Indian parliament to legislate on Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura together. If someone thinks that by delaying the construction of the Ram temple, they can marginalise the VHP, they are living in a fool’s paradise. The ram temple movement was initiated by the VHP with the blessings of our sadhus and sants and with the support of the Hindu masses. Today the Hindu elite too is supporting the movement. And this has been established by a professional study that over 80% of elite Hindus support the Ram temple movement. We now have the support of the masses and classes and this will create a unique momentum which can lead us only towards our goal. If any political party or a politician wants to take advantage of this Hindu upsurge, we have no objection. By supporting our cause if someone aspires to be the Prime Minister, I have no problems with it. He or she can become the Prime Minister, we will get the Ram temple built.

Politicians must cherish the illusion that without their support the movement will die or that the VHP’s fate is in their hands. Ultimately it will be the Hindu people’s movement and their pressure which will compel our politicians to fall in line. Because politicians will need the numbers to be successful. I hope good sense will prevail in the Muslim mind. If the Muslims continue to remain intractable and if the politicians are not prepared to come forward to legislate, then shortly we will launch a mass agitation for the cause. We will not wait longer, not even months. We have already chartered a course of action and that course will culminate not only in temple construction but will also end the jihadi terrorism against Bharat and Hindus. I thank ‘Vigil, Radha Rajan ji and all my brothers and sisters here.