NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad announced on Monday that it would restart work on constructing a Rama temple in Ayodhya from December 6 if the new government did not recognise the right of the majority community to have a temple there.

“This time the kar seva (voluntary) programme will be continued for months together till the temple construction begins, the VHP secretary general, Ashok Singhal told a press conference here.

Singhal said he had clearly told the prime minister during discussions on November 10, that the temple construction plan would include the Garbha Griha, the spot inside the disputed shrine where his idols of Hindu god, his wife, Sita and brother, Lakshman, are kept.

He said the December 6 programme would be “peaceful” and groups of kar sevaks (volunteers) from different districts, led by VHP and religious leaders, would lead a march in Ayodhya in support of the building of the temple.

Asked whether the volunteers would try to enter the disputed premises again, Singhal said “our construction plan includes the spot where the idols are kept and that is inside the complex.”

Stating that the leaders of the new government held “similar political views as those the previous regime”, Singhal said the VHP central executive committee, which met here on Sunday to chalk out fresh plan of action, had taken “serious note” of Chandra Shekhar’s reported statement defending the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s action in Ayodhya.

Singhal said the meeting also decided to establish a fund for the benefit of those killed or injured in the Ayodhya incidents.

The religious leaders would begin a “purification programme” of the temples in the holy city which he said had been “desecrated” by security forces during the earlier “kar seva” programme, which began on October 30 and went on till November 7.

Apart from Singhal, the VHP vice president and former inspector general of U.P. police, Shri Chand Dikshit and VHP working president, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, were present at the press conference.

They claimed they had a list of 54 persons killed in the Ayodhya incidents and said the toll could be “much higher” as about 400 people were still “missing”.

The VHP leaders said they had constituted a seven member fact finding committee to go into the incidents in Ayodhya and demanded that the government set up an enquiry committee headed by a Supreme Court judge for the purpose. They also demanded action against “guilty” police and administration officials.

Shameful Incidents:

She said what happened at Ayodhya was shameful. According to her, lakhs of people had come for kar seva and still the government could not acknowledge the kind of popular support there is for building a Ram temple.

According to her the problem ‘was not the public, but a handful of leaders. “We warn whichever government comes to power, if they don’t let us build the temple, they too will be destroyed.”

The hundreds of “kar sevaks” which had come to listen to the BJP president Mr Lal Krishna Advani, had to go back disappointed. Talking about the kind of support the kar sevaks got in Ayodhya, Mr Singhal recalled how the procession was stopped on the way once because it was heading towards a Yadav village. “We were still deciding what to do when some people from the village came running up to us urging us to come do their village. “They told me just because a rakshas (monster) from our clan is ruling this state, it does not mean we are not Ram sevaks.”

Article extracted from this publication >> November 16, 1990