NEW DELHI: With the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamascvak Sangh (RSS) and the Bajrang Dal having been banned, the sadhus are planning to come to the forefront in @ major way in the next two months to bring the Ayodhya issue back on top of the national agenda.
Sant sammelans (gathering of sadhus) are slated to be held in almost every State over the next month.
This is, perhaps, the first time that the sadhus are organizing coordinated and extensive meetings.
The executive meeting of the santsamiti, which is headed by Swami Vandev, is scheduled to be held in Jaipur at the end of March or the beginning of April, according to BJP member Swami Chinmayan and, who is actively associated with the sant sammelan also.
The Jaipur conclave would be followed by another gathering in Tamil Nadu. While the date for this is yet to be decided, it is expected to be held in the second week of April,
Observers feel that with the banning of the three major organizations involved in the temple movement, it was inevitable that the religious leaders would take on the formal platform themselves. In the last few months, although the sadhus had been in the forefront of the temple campaign, they were functioning under the aegis of the VHP or in direct collaboration with them and given their growing importance, the Government also had tried to wean some of them away from the fold.
Even now, sources maintain, the santsamiti and the sant sammelan would work in tandem with the VHP through its General Secretary Ashok Singhal. However, the imposition of the ban has taken away the formal platform from them, although at the ground level they continue to work uninhibitedly.
Although VHP sources deny that they will be overtaken by the religious Jeaders, observers maintain that the series of meetings being organized by the sadhus could lead to a situation where they may start calling the shots.
With the religious leaders once again coming to the fore, the Ayodhya issue is likely to come into focus again. An agitation plank on it would be built against the Government’s moves to setup trusts, its proclaimed intention to build a mosque at the site and their own demand for unrestricted darshan of the idol.
The March April developments would only help in building an atmosphere towards the agitation, it is said. In a replay of the paduka pujan when wooden sandals were sent across the country, the religious leaders plan to consecrate gulai and dispatch it to different comers to be mixed with the gulai there for the upcoming festival of holi. Ram Prasad would also be sent to different villages after that. The entire effort, claimed a leader, would be to mobilize as many people as possible.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 19, 1993
