A section of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has turned up the heat on the demand for a Ram mandir in Ayodhya, with some of the party’s parliamentarians demanding that the temple be built soon.
The demand by the members of Parliament (MPs) was made in a close-door BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday and follows calls by several right-wing groups for the government to enact a law that would allow the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya even as the Supreme Court hears the dispute.
“The government should raise the matter and make a law. The public had not taken anyone’s permission and not moved court when the temple was razed to the ground and it should be built for the public itself exactly where it was in Ayodhya. There is enough evidence that the temple was there and that it was Ram’s birthplace,” said a senior BJP MP, seeking anonymity.
The number of MPs who attended the meeting could not immediately be ascertained.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah absent from the meeting, home minister Rajnath Singh asked the MPs, who sought to know the government’s stand on the demand, to remain patient, according to persons familiar with the development.
Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said the demand for the Ram temple was not a “communal or religious issue”.
Several organizations, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have intensified their agitation for early construction of the temple, pitching for a law to enable it.
The centre has declined to comment on the matter, which is before the apex court. Senior officials of the centre declined to comment on the issues discussed in the meeting.