Ayodhya on the edge as stones for temple arrive

Mangalore Today News Network

Lucknow: Dec 22, 2015: Officials put on alert to avoid communal tension as the VHP leaders and the Ram Janambhoomi Trust chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das indicated that efforts to construct a grand Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya would gain momentum with the BJP at the helm, Muslim leaders urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter.

Arrival of stone-laden trucks at the Ramsevak Puram workshop in Ayodhya for the construction of Ram Temple and the “shilapujan” (worshipping of the stones) by VHP leaders and sadhus signalled the bid to revive the temple agitation,  evoking a sharp reaction from Muslim leaders.

 

As the VHP leaders and the Ram Janambhoomi Trust chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das indicated that efforts to construct a grand Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya would gain momentum with the BJP at the helm, Muslim leaders urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter.

The bringing of the stones also put the district officials on the alert and they made it clear that they would not allow any thing that might vitiate communal harmony. The Supreme Court orders in this regard would be strictly enforced, they said.

Nritya Gopal Das and some other saints had on Sunday performed “shilapujan” of the stones at the VHP workshop at Ramsevak Puram in Ayodhya where the work of stone carving had been going on for the past several years. “Time has come for the construction of the Ram Temple,” Nritya Gopal Das said after the “shilapujan”. A group of saints from Ayodhya was also likely to meet Modi to seek his help in this regard.

VHP leaders said the number of artisans carving the stones has increased. It was the first time the stones had been brought to Ayodhya from Rajasthan after 2007, sources said.

Muslim leaders strongly reacted to the “shilapujan” and said they, too, could bring truckloads of stones for Babri Masjid. “Anyone can bring truckloads of stones..we can also do the same,” said Haji Mehboob, one of the main complainants in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, currently pending in the apex court.

The oldest litigant in the case, Hashim Ansari, termed the VHP move a “political stunt” aimed at “disrupting” the communal fabric of the country. “We appeal to Narendra Modi to intervene...the matter is in the Supreme Court and we all should wait for the verdict,” Ansari said in Ayodhya.