VHP to install model of propsed Ram temple on anniversary of Oct '90 firing
AMIT SHARMA

AYODHYA, JULY 30: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has decided to install a model of its proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya on the October anniversary of police firing on kar sevaks in 1990. With Assembly elections due in less than a year, top Sangh Parivar leaders are regularly visiting the city to push the movement for the completion of the temple.

The 21x7.5x11-foot model is being constructed at the VHP's workshop inJaipur and will be placed at a prominent place in the city to send the message that the Sangh Parivar has not distanced itself from the Ram temple movement, which brought the BJP to power .

In fact, many of the thousands of devotees who throng Ayodhya visit the workshop where stones for the proposed temple are being carved since 1990. They watch with reverence another small model of the temple that the VHP has promised to build at the disputed site.

The religious appeal of the model evident, the Parishad is ready to exploit the sentiments of devotees. It plans to project the model as the temple till its gets the ``power to built the real structure at the sanctum sanctorum''.

Bringing the model to Ayodhya in October couldn't be more appropriate since Assembly elections are around the corner and the ruling BJP has no issue to its credit till now. With the anti-incumbency factor threatening to mar its electoral fortunes, the Parivar is desperately trying to counter the abhorrence prevailing among the people for the party.

Top leaders of the Parivar, who were in the forefront during the movement against Babri Masjid, are visiting Ayodhya. VHP leader Ashok Singhal comes here almost every month and Uma Bharti was in town on Saturday for a two-day visit.

Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta has already sought the blessings of Lord Rama. K.N. Govndiacharya too came visiting, apparently to assuage the saints on the Religious Places Bill that was later withdrawn by the UP government.

``Ashokji frequently comes to the town and this workshop. Carving out the stones for the temple will be completed within two years,'' said Nagendra Upadhyaya, supervisor of one of the two workshops here. Around 90 workers work here from 8 am till 5 pm everyday. Devotees of Lord Ram still discuss the construction of the temple at Ayodhya. ``We do not know politics but want to see a magnificent temple of Ram at his place of birth,'' said Ram Autar, who has come with his family from Gonda for a darshan of Ramlalla. His sentiments are echoed by almost all who come to the workshop.

``We will continue the movement and pressurise the government to build the Ram temple here,'' said a VHP leader. Devotees, then, can presumably rest assured that there will most probably more than a workshop to see in the years to come.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.