Journalism of Courage
Seeking support for its Ram temple movement, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) plans to visit smaller localities in Uttar Pradesh and across the country to celebrate lord Ram’s birthday before the Ram Navami festival in March.
The VHP, which will administer a pledge to the people to join its campaign, had held such programmes at the district levels in the past. Recitation of Sundar Kand, sermons of seers and havan were performed as part of the Ram Janmotsav celebrations.
“Same programmes will be organised this year as well. But now, we will hold the celebrations at our smallest units — mohalla samitis. Celebrations will also take place at Upkhand, Khand and Prakhand levels, which are units within districts,” said VHP national joint general secretary Surendra Jain. While a prakhand is VHP unit with a population of one lakh, a khand has 10,000 people in it.
Jain said the ongoing Hindu sammelans have increased the number of mohalla samitis to one lakh across the country. “The objective of holding Ram Janmotsav programmes at the mohalla samiti level is to appeal to the people to take the pledge of associating themselves with VHP for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement,” he added.
The events will be held for 15 days in March. VHP leaders will create awareness among the people about the unit’s organisational activities and ongoing programmes related to the Ram temple issue and ‘ghar wapsi’.
During a Hindu Sammelan in Lucknow, VHP working president Pravin Togadia had said that the RSS wing will celebrate the completion of its 50 years only when the Ram temple was constructed in Ayodhya. He, however, had refused to give any deadline to the NDA government for the construction of the temple. But other seers hailing from Ayodhya had announced that they will not to accept any “excuse” from the Centre over the construction of the Ram temple, as the government now has a majority in the parliament. “The Centre must construct the Ram temple now,” Mahant Suresh Das of Ayodhya had said recently.
A VHP leader said: “The BJP had promised to build the Ram temple if it has a clear majority in the Parliament. Now, when it has the majority, it must initiate work on its promise. The VHP will raise the issue in Hindu sammelans and other events to mount pressure on the government.”
