Top industrialists offered to build Ram temple: VHP

Lucknow, Nov 28 (IANS) The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has said that country's top industrialists and business houses had approached it with offers to construct the Ram Temple in Ayodhya single-handedly after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Ram Janambhoomi in November 2019.

“The organisation, however, refused the offer and did not even forward it to the Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra -- the nodal body entrusted with the responsibility of constructing the temple. The VHP, instead, went ahead with its Ram Mandir Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan, a mega campaign envisaging reaching out to over 13 crore families to raise funds for the temple,” VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal told reporters.

He, however, refused to divulge the names of the industrialists who made the offer.

Bansal said the idea was to connect people’s sentiments with the Ram temple movement which was carried out by seers and scores of Ram Bhakts for over 500 years.

Bansal said the VHP cadres subsequently fanned across the length and breadth of the country to raise funds for the temple.

“It was from here that the concept of Ram temple being a ‘Rashtra Mandir’ took shape,” he said, adding that the VHP would once again reach the doorsteps of devotees in the run-up to the inauguration of the temple by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.

The VHP spokesperson said: “It was time to ensure that the upcoming Ram temple was not relegated like ‘just any other temple’ but manifests itself as a symbol of Indian culture which was once crushed by the Mughals and then in the post-Independence era by successive governments, which were primarily driven by communal appeasement.”

“The objective of the Mughals was not to loot the country but to destroy the Hindu culture and its symbols situated in places like Ayodhya, Kashi (Varanasi) and Mathura,” Bansal added.

He said the VHP will carry out a dedicated campaign to spread the idea of ‘Ramatva’ and how it binds the country into one common thread of 'Hindutva'.

“The campaign will be carried out alongside the drive to invite prominent people with Akshat rice -- the specially worshipped rice from Ayodhya -- to the Ram temple inauguration event,” he said.

The VHP spokesperson said that the VHP would also approach people to follow the rituals performed during the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla’s idol in Ayodhya.

“This can be done at local temples or at one’s house,” he said.