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VHP turns up heat ahead of Ayodhya SC hearing, says will take to the streets if needed

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Won’t put pressure on govt for a law right now. But depending on SC ruling, we’ll decide whether to solve the matter on the streets: Secy gen Champat Rai.

New Delhi: Ahead of the next Supreme Court hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case on 8 February, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has begun turning up the heat.

Champat Rai, VHP’s international secretary general, said Saturday that the organisation will wait for the SC order and then decide on its future course of action, but added that the option of taking to the streets again was open.

For now, though, he says the VHP will sit tight and not put pressure on the government to make a law in favour of a Ram temple in Ayodhya – at least until the court gives its ruling.

“If the matter is sub judice and Parliament makes a law, it can be challenged in the Supreme Court again. However, once the matter is out of court… the ball is in the government’s court, and therefore, the people’s,” Rai said during an interaction organised by the Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra, called ‘Ramjanmabhoomi – Ek Samvaad’.

“Like in the Shah Bano case, Muslims did not abide by the court’s decision and took to the streets, and as a result, the government had to make amendments to the law. We are waiting for the court’s ruling, which should come by May this year,” Rai said.

No more talks

“We will not participate in talks – that stage is over. Talks mean negotiations. We can’t give up anything now; people have died for the cause. The time for talks was before 1992, in which we participated. It is in the minutes of the meetings that Muslim leaders committed that if the mandir’s existence was proved, Muslims would leave the land,” Rai insisted.

“We want the Supreme Court to fast track the decision, right or wrong, so that the path opens up for the decision to be taken on the streets (sadak par faisla hone ka raasta khul jaaye),” Rai added.

On the Allahabad High Court order partitioning the disputed land, Rai said: “We maintain this is not a property that can be partitioned. This land belongs to Hindus. The Supreme Court should either dismiss the partition, or keep the status quo. When the ball is in the government’s court, we’ll ask it to make the law.”

Opening another front in Mathura

The VHP has also recently begun talking up another ‘disputed’ mosque structure on a temple site – this one in the holy city of Mathura. Rai urged people to take up swords for the issue.

“In the history of Ayodhya, people have taken up swords 75 times in 500 years. Tell me if Mathura has witnessed this even 10 times. The day Mathura becomes 10 per cent of Ayodhya, the day fires are stoked, only then will something happen,” he said.

Material for temple construction in Ayodhya

Rai claimed that 60 per cent of stone carving work for the temple at Ayodhya has been done. He insisted that every stone had arrived with the permission of the state government, including chief ministers from all political parties.

“There is a condition – every truck needs to get permission from the state government. Between 1990 and 2006, UP CMs gave permissions and did not refuse us. We had 500 permissions for trucks. We brought in stones till 2006. Then the stones were carved. Sixty per cent of the stones are carved and ready,” Rai said.

“In 2014, (former VHP chief) Ashok Singhal asked us to resume importing stone. We brought in 50 more trucks, and then stopped for the Supreme Court decision. But the work has never stopped. We have not left anything undone, and we won’t leave anything undone even now,” he added.

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