The RSS on Sunday said it has not abandoned its commitment to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and sought speeding up of the case proceedings in the Supreme Court. “We have not abandoned the issue of Ram temple. After the order of the High Court, which went in favour of Hindus, the matter is pending before the Supreme Court. The judiciary is important. The pace of proceedings in the Supreme Court is slow and that should be sped up,” RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said.
“We don’t feel there is a need for launching an agitation over the issue right now, we will see what happens later, but we have not abandoned the issue,” he said. Joshi was addressing the customary Press conference on the concluding day of the three-day brainstorming session of the ‘Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha’, the top decision and policy making body of the RSS.
Joshi, who was elected ‘Sarkaryavah’, the second in command in the influential right-wing organisation and ideological mentor of the ruling BJP, also strongly advocated citizenship for Indians fleeing countries like Pakistan and taking refuge here. “There is no other land for Hindus fleeing persecution in a foreign land. If mistreated and abused Hindus facing injustice in a foreign land arrive here, it is the responsibility of our society and the Government to accept them. The Government must consider their cases seriously,” he said.
Hundreds of Hindu families who have escaped from Pakistan and settled in several States, including Gujarat, have been seeking Indian citizenship. Joshi said RSS was committed to protecting the ‘gau vansh’ and merely enacting laws to ban cow slaughter by some BJP-ruled states was not enough. “The Government must ensure that the law against cow slaughter is implemented effectively, just making laws is not sufficient,” he said. Joshi also strongly denounced the alleged gang-rape of a 71-year-old nun at a convent school in West Bengal’s Nadia district, but deprecated attempts by some elements to use such incidents to create tension between communities.
Joshi refused to take questions about the strain in ties between the BJP and the PDP, which are in a coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir, over Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s remark crediting Pakistan, the separatists and militants for the peaceful Assembly poll and the release of separatist leader Masrat Alam.