RSS: Ram temple by 2025 will speed up country’s progress

On Thursday, addressing the concluding session of the meeting, Joshi said an ordinary person like him was of the view that the country had moved forward rapidly with the construction of the Somnath temple in 1951. “…2025 mein Ramjanmabhoomi ke upar shrestha Ram Mandir banney ke baad phir iss disha ko aur gati prapt hone wali hai, yeh vishwas hai (Work in this direction will gather pace after the construction of a grand Ram temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi by 2025, this is the belief),” he said.

He said building the Ram temple at the Ramjanmabhoomi was not a matter of building one more temple. “Yeh rashtra ki chetna ka kendra hai… croron logon ki shradhha ka kendra hai… vishwas ka kendra hai… mandir to hazaaron hain. Aur iss Ayodhya ke mandir nirman ke baad phir ek baar desh agle 150 varshon ke liye poonji prapt karega aur aage badhne wala desh banega (It is the centre of the nation’s consciousness, the centre of the faith of crores of people, the centre of trust. There are thousands of temples. Once the Ayodhya temple is built, the country will get capital for the next 150 years and be a progressive one),” he said.

Later, in a statement, RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Arun Kumar said that at the time of praan pratistha of the Somnath temple in 1951, then President Dr Rajendra Prasad had called the rebuilding of Somnath temple as a development in the direction of the prosperity of the nation. “Kumbh will be held again after six years in 2025… With completion of the building of Ram temple — which is a symbol of national pride — by that time, nation will head towards prosperity. Such a belief Bhayyaji Joshi has expressed,” he said.

The RSS and VHP have been urging the government to bring in a legislation or an ordinance to start work on a Ram temple in Ayodhya. In a recent interview to ANI, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, responding to a question on bringing an ordinance for the construction of a Ram temple, said “the matter is before the judiciary, let it be completed” and “once it comes from the judiciary, wherever the responsibility of a government begins, we are ready to make all efforts”.