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Appearing on television channel TV9 Bharatvarsh, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no contribution towards the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The prime minister is scheduled to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony for the shrine in Ayodhya on August 5.

“We did all the arguments and debates for the temple. The government did nothing that can be called a factor towards the [Supreme Court’s] decision favouring the construction of the temple,” Swamy said.

The politician also said that former prime ministers and Congress leaders Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao, and Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Ashok Singhal were the main figures who pushed the agenda of constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The temple is being built on the spot that until December 6, 1992, had been occupied by the 16th-century Babri Masjid. It was demolished that day by Hindutva supporters. They claimed that it stood on the birthplace of the deity Ram. After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court in November ordered the site to be handed over to a trust for a temple to be constructed.