Senior member of Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas and former Member of Parliament Ram Vilas Vedanti. (IndiaTV)
The long pending contentious issue of construction of Ram temple on the disputed land in Ayodhya is heating up again months ahead of Lok Sabha elections. After a meeting of Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) high-powered committee in New Delhi on Friday, veteran seers submitted a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind.
The saints have appealed the BJP-led NDA government to initiate the process of Ram temple construction by bringing a memorandum in Parliament in the winter session.
Senior member of Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas and former Member of Parliament Ram Vilas Vedanti told India TV that the government should pass a law to make way for construction of Ram temple. Vedanti said that Modi government should take action in the matter similar to what it did in the matter of SC/ST Act.
Addressing a press conference, VHP's international working president Alok Kumar set the 'deadline' for the government to bring the ordinance in Parliament by the year-end.
"This is the final battle for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The government should bring an ordinance for the construction of the temple and this should be done by the end of this year," Kumar said.
Describing the Narendra Modi government as one of 'Ram bhakts', the VHP leader expressed the hope that it would acknowledge the feelings of crores of hindus in the country and bring the law 'before the sunset of 2018'.
"If that does not happen, then all the options are open before us. The future course of action will be decided during the two-day 'Dharam Sansad' to be held next year on the sidelines of the Maha Kumbh in Allahabad," Kumar said.
He categorically said that only a temple would be built at the site in Ayodhya, while informing that the "Dharam Sansad" would be held on January 31-February 1, 2019 and all the prominent seers from across the country would take part in it.
The decision by the saints comes after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent statement that even opposition parties cannot openly oppose a Ram temple in Ayodhya as the deity is revered by the country's majority.
At a function held at Patanjali Yogpeeth on Monday, October 1, Bhagwat said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party are committed to constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya but certain things take time.
Last week, the Supreme Court had declined to refer to a five-judge constitution bench the issue of reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam which had arisen during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute.
The apex court had said now the civil suit on land dispute will be heard by a newly constituted three-judge bench on October 29.
WATCH: Aaj Ki Baat - Saints set deadline for Ram temple construction
