The Shiv Sena on Tuesday intensified its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and warned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government that it will be thrown out of power if it fails to build the temple, as promised.
The Shiv Sena, in an editorial published in their mouthpiece Saamana, opined that the temple issue has been reduced to a mere poll promise and therefore, has become a topic for ridiculing Hindutva."Ram Mandir banao, nahi toh Ram naam satya hai," read the headline of the edit piece.
"When BJP came to power in both Centre and Uttar Pradesh, we believed that the Ram Temple will soon be constructed in Ayodhya but nothing happened. Now, Prime Minister Modi and other Hindutva people are not uttering a single word regarding the construction of Ram Temple. The temple issue has been reduced only to a poll promise and therefore, has become a topic for ridiculing Hindutva," the article read.
Citing the example of spiritual leader Swami Paramhans Das, the Mahant of Ayodhya's Tapaswi Chhawni, who sat on an indefinite hunger strike for seven continuous days demanding the construction of Ram Temple and was later detained by the police, the Shiv Sena said, "The government is causing trouble to those who are raising a demand for construction of Ram Temple,
Shiv Sena, the BJP's carping ally in Maharashtra, has asked the Prime Minister Modi-led government to seriously take up the matter of constructing Ram temple in Ayodhya.
On October 4, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told ANI that the party president Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya in the near future upon the invitation of Janmejay Sharanji, the chief of Ram Janmabhoomi Trust.
Elaborating on the meeting between his party chief and Sharanji, Raut said that the head of Janmabhoomi Trust was of the view that "without Shiv Sena's power, determination and belief Ram Temple cannot be built."
"If Ram Mandir cannot be built now, it can never be constructed again," Raut added.
The Babri Masjid, built by Mughal emperor Babur in Ayodhya in 1528, was, on December 6, 1992, pulled down allegedly by a group of Hindu activists, claiming that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a Ram Temple that originally stood there.
