Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha asks Opposition leaders if they will support his bill on Ram temple
Sinha, a Hindutva ideologue who was nominated to the Upper House in July, said the ball was now in the Opposition’s court.
Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha on Thursday asked Opposition leaders to support a private member’s bill on the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya that he is planning to introduce in the Upper House.
Sinha, a Hindutva ideologue who was nominated to the Upper House in July by President Ram Nath Kovind, took to Twitter to announce his intention to introduce the bill.
He asked Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav if they will support the bill. “They [Opposition] frequently ask the date [for the commencement of the construction of the Ram temple], now the onus is on them,” he added. Sinha said he would write a preface for the bill and seek the Opposition leaders’ feedback on the matter.
The parliamentarian, said the Ayodhya dispute has been neglected for years even though it is a “priority for the Hindu society”.
Will @RahulGandhi @SitaramYechury @laluprasadrjd Mayawati ji support Private member bill on Ayodhya? They frequently ask the date ‘तारीख़ नही बताएँगे ‘ to @RSSorg @BJP4India ,now onus on them to answer
— Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) November 1, 2018
How many days SC took to give verdict on Article 377, Jallikattu, Sabarimala ?But Ayodhya is not in priority for decades and decades . It is a top priority of Hindu society .
— Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) November 1, 2018
On Monday, the Supreme Court adjourned the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid land dispute case to January. Since then, several religious leaders and organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have expressed their displeasure at the delay.
The court is hearing petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court’s 2010 order for a three-way division of the land on which the Babri Masjid stood before it was brought down.
On Wednesday, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Joint Secretary Manmohan Vaidya asked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre to bring in a legislation to ensure that the temple is built. Vaidya asked the National Democratic Alliance administration to fulfil the “promise made by Congress-led government in 1994 to support the Hindu community if evidence of a pre-existing temple was found” at the site of the Babri Masjid, which was demolished by Hindutva activists in December 1992.
In September, the Congress had accused the RSS of raking up the matter only when elections approach. The accusations followed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s pitch for early construction of the temple.