VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal appealed to the intellectuals committed to Bharatiya values to actively support the temple movement to expedite the reconstruction of Sri Ram temple at the Ramjanmabhoomi. The Allahabad High Court, he said, has vindicated the Hindu faith that the disputed site is the janmasthan of Sri Ram and the Hindu assertion that the disputed structure was built after demolishing a Hindu shrine. The demolished structure was not a mosque as per the Islamic tenets; the VHP leader asserted and said that there is no question of any mosque coming up in the vicinity of the temple.
Addressing the annual function of East Delhi Panchnad Study Centre on October 24, Shri Singhal regretted that Islam has been hijacked by jehadis who are pushing Muslim community on a path of confrontation with the Hindus. That would neither be in the interest of minority community nor of the society at large. Hindus are, by nature peace loving and wants to live in harmony with other communities but it would be wrong to interpret their docility as weakness. “Hindus can, and will, demonstrate their shaurya, if the need arose”, he cautioned.
Speaking on the topic “High Court verdict and the road ahead”, VHP joint general secretary, Shri Champat Rai, traced the history of Ayodhya dispute and underlined the salient features of the High Court judgement. He said the court has vindicated the Hindu stand that the disputed site is indeed the janmasthan of Sri Ram and that it belongs to the deity – Ram Lalla – that is a legal entity. He gave a detailed narration of how the ISI undertook the archaeologial investigations on the direction and under the supervision of the Court and produced a scientific report based on its investigations. The report said the disputed structure was built over a Hindu shrine of yore. He also mentioned that a shilalekh recovered from the debris of the so-called Babri structure that mentioned that the Hindu shrine was of Vishnu Hari who had killed Ravana and that it was built in 1128 AD.
In his presidential remarks, Chairman of the Panchnad Research Institute, Shri Shyam Khosla, observed that while Muslim intellectuals of Jaipur and deprived sections of the community living in Bhindi Bazar and other Muslim-dominated areas of Mumbai had welcomed the High Court judgement and favoured avoiding a confrontation with the Hindu society, the Muslims are being misled by practitioners of vote bank politics like Digvijay Singh, Mulayam Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan and the Communists. He also criticised the inflammatory statements made by Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid and who is itching for communal confrontation. Shri Khosla quoted from Justice S U Khan’s judgement to say that the Muslims as a sizeable minority living in a secular democracy must play their role in resolution of the conflict at hand to clarify to the world at large the exact teachings of Islam on Muslims’ relationship with others in matters of conflicts among faiths. He wondered if the Muslims would seize the moment to pave the way for national reconciliation or would continue to follow the leaders who want confrontation with the Hindu society to serve their petty political ends. A large number of intellectuals, academics, authors, professionals, technocrats and teachers participated in the deliberations.
(FOC)
