: To give impetus to the Ram Mandir movement, Bajrang Dal has started a ‘trishul diksha’ campaign to raise a dedicated force that can act when required.
Under this campaign, over 10,000 Bajrang Dal activists have been given ‘diksha’. Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
VHP secretary of Awadh Prant, Devendra Mishra, confirmed that so far 10,000 Bajrang Dal activists of the Awadh region had been given ‘trishul diksha.’
“At present we are concentrating only on Awadh region because Lucknow is the heart of this region. If needed, the Bajrang Dal activists of other regions would be imparted the same training,” Mishra told ‘The Pioneer’ here on Sunday.
He said that as the agitation in favour of Ram Mandir construction gathered pace, the VHP would be needing youths who could come out on the roads within stipulated time.
“Therefore, we are now concentrating on Awadh region by giving ‘trishul diksha’ to Bajrang Dal activists of the region,” the VHP leader said.
The Awadh region comprises 12 districts but for the VHP it has 25 zones.
Incidentally, VHP stopped its ‘trishul diksha’ campaign after the Dara Singh incident of Odisha in 2006, though every year, firearms training camps are held at various venues.
In 2016, the firearms training camp was held in Ayodhya, and it sparked a major controversy. In 2017, the camp was held in Hardoi.
Last year, the VHP had launched a membership drive under which over 10 lakh youths were enrolled in Bajrang Dal. The criteria for new membership was that the person should be in the age group of 15-35 years and swear by the ideology of ‘Seva, Suraksha, Sanskar’.
Muslims were not enrolled in the Bajrang Dal but were welcome in Rashtriya Muslim Manch, the Muslim cell of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. However, Christians were not accepted in any RSS or Bharatiya Janata Party wing.
The issue of ‘ghar vaapsi’, protection of Hindu community and opposition to ‘love jihad’, besides service to the poor and downtrodden are some of the prime activities of Bajrang Dal. But now its focus is only on the construction of Ram temple.
“We are not discussing any other issue other than construction of Ram temple,” Mishra added.
He said the government was left with one option — of bringing a legislation for construction of Ram temple.
“Every Hindu is now questioning why there is a delay in construction of the Ram temple,” Mishra added.
He agreed that the government could face some problems in the Rajya Sabha (for the passage of such legislation) as it does not have the required number but it could go for a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
