Sudhanshu Mittal bats for Ram Mandir in new book

Cultural restoration of sites of worship has been going on since centuries, says BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal, who in his new book "RSS: Building India through sewa" calls for a Ram Temple at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.

"This struggle for a Ram Mandir to be constructed in a country where the majority population is Hindu, is unparalleled anywhere in the world. Can we imagine Christians being unable to reconstruct a church if the one in the Vatican was destroyed by invaders, with devotees crying for centuries?" he asks in the book, scheduled to be launched by Union Minister Smriti Irani and RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on March 1.

Mittal maintains that it is an "undisputed fact" that a Ram Temple existed until its barbaric destruction by the forces of Muslim invader Babur, led by Mir Baqi in 1528.

He says that it is only Hindus, owing to their non-violent nature, who have been at the receiving end of "this huge historical wrong".

Mittal, a prominent member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since its inception, further says that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has always had a consistent stand on the issue that a Ram Mandir must be built at the site in Ayodhya. He also says that the RSS's affiliate bodies have worked hard on the legal front and in mass advocacy for the cause.

"But nowhere has RSS given the call to destroy any structure. For many in India fed on a diet of biased news, it is easy to see the demolition of the already dilapidated Babri Masjid by kar sevaks in 1992 as an assault on democracy and what not, when only a sensitive heart can see that action as the expression of a hurt and aggrieved Hindu community that has suffered injustices and historical wrongs and was forced to see a monument dedicated to Babur, a mass murderer of Hindus, on the sacred site of Lord Shri Ram," he notes in the book, published by New Delhi-based Har Anand Publications.

According to Mittal's assertions in the book, the Hindu identity was suppressed by a "forcefully imposed secularism into the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency". He says that the Ram Janmabhoomi movement galvanised Hindu identity in a way that nothing else had before.

"It is important to reiterate that the RSS view is not anti-Muslim. It believes in a strong cultural identity of India based on the civilisation's Hindu roots and that all who are Indians, irrespective of the religion their ancestors adopted, are of the same blood and identity. Hence, there should be no discomfort for Muslims to enable the peaceful construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya," he remarks in the book.

Mittal notes the "immense patience and decency" of the Hindu population in India that, according to him, chooses to follow the law and wait for justice.

"Indeed, there is no majority community anywhere in the world like the Hindus of India," he says.

Mittal, who has formulated the political strategies for BJP in several elections in India, attempts in his book to enlighten his readers on the working of the RSS, its model of selfless service and how it positively impacts people's lives, cutting across caste, socio-economic status and religion.

--IANS

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