RSS, BJP join hands to pull out all stops for November 25 Ayodhya event

“RSS has extended support to the sants’ programme. A national RSS functionary will be present in Ayodhya during the Dharma Sabha,” said a senior RSS functionary.

Sources said RSS functionaries in its four ‘prants’ — Awadh, Kashi, Goraksh and Kanpur-Bundelkhand — are holding coordination meetings with each other and with the BJP and other like-minded outfits. BJP sources said their workers would take out bike rallies and ‘prabhat pheris’ to appeal to people to attend the event. Last week, RSS pracharaks in Ayodhya held a meeting with workers of the BJP and ABVP. BJP’s Ayodhya Mahaganagar president Kamlesh Srivastava said, “We are making arrangements for the dignitaries and are inviting every family in the city for the Sabha.”

A 14-Kosi Parkirama that started in Ayodhya on Friday will conclude on November 24, ensuring a large gathering of Hindu devotees from across the country for the November 25 event.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is also visiting Ayodhya, where he will address a meeting called to honour sants on November 24, after which he will address his party workers on November 25. Shiv Sena workers from Maharashtra are likely to visit Ayodhya. Shiv Sena’s UP chief Anil Singh claimed that Thackeray’s visit to Ayodhya was not political but for the cause of the Ram temple.

While Muslim litigants in the Ayodhya title suit had demanded security for the community, fearing tensions arising from the VHP programme, leaders of the RSS and VHP have claimed that the Sabha would be a peaceful event.

“The BJP is in power both at the Centre and in UP. Any untoward happening will be bad for the BJP governments. Hence, any indiscipline will be unacceptable,” said an RSS functionary.

When asked about the possibility of the Dharma Sabha seeing a larger turnout than what Ayodhya witnessed on December 6, 1992, VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain claimed that the event will be the “biggest ever” in the town’s history. On participation of the RSS and BJP, Jain said VHP had appealed to all ‘Ram bhakts’ to attend the event.

The VHP will hold similar Dharma Sabhas in Nagpur and Bengaluru on November 25, a Sabha in Mumbai on December 2 and a bigger congregation in New Delhi on December 9.

The Ram temple debate had been revived in September, when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in New Delhi that the temple should be built in Ayodhya at the “earliest”.