Bhagwat asks society to prepare for Ram temple

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today asked society to prepare for building a grand Ram temple like the one in Somnath (Gujarat), a call that was disapproved of by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who said BJP was keen on keeping the issue "alive" for political purposes.
A day after Bhagwat spoke in Kolkata yesterday expressing the hope that the Ram temple in Ayodhya will be constructed in his lifetime, RSS today made a series of tweets quoting Bhagwat on the issue.
In one of the tweets, Bhagwat recalled that Somnath temple was rebuilt with the "efforts" of the then Home Minister Sardar Patel and the then President had laid the foundation stone.

"India is rich in religion and culture. Ram is our ideal whom some regard as god and some as a great man... Society should rise taking inspiration from Ram and Sharad Kothari and prepare for building a grand Ram temple like Somnath," the RSS chief said.
Ram and Sharad Kothari were among the RSS activists killed in police firing on 'karservaks' in 1990 when they tried to march to the disputed temple site in Ayodhya.
"The grand goal may be realised in our own time. May be we can see it with our own eyes," he had said in Kolkata.

Reacting to Bhagwat's comments, BJP said that it "definitely believes Ram temple should be built sometime."

In Patna, Nitish Kumar attacked the RSS and BJP over Bhagwat's remarks and said the saffron party was interested in keeping the issue "alive" for political purposes.
"BJP merely wishes to keep the Ram Temple issue alive. They have no respect for Lord Rama," Kumar told reporters. "They treat Lord Rama as if God is a member of BJP."
Bhagwat cited the example of Rabindranath Tagore in Japan
where his speech got a lukewarm response because he was from a slave country.
"Truth was not honoured because the country from where the truth was told was considered weak. It was a slave. After we achieved independence, the value of the truth increased a bit. It increased furthermore after winning wars. It happened again when we became a nuclear nation.

"When people here protected republic, it increased again. Today, the condition is such that the yoga-related proposal was cleared in the UN without much discussion. It is discussed everywhere. The more powerful your nation becomes, value of its truth increases, too. Hence, we need strength," he said.
The RSS chief said Israel stood tall with pride due to its "resolve" and added,"a society which cares for its people, has affection for them, even if it lacks resources, is smaller in size, still it is able to achieve its goal".
Bhagwat said there should be no room for inequality or discrimination as "a divided society will fail".

Referring to Ambedkar, Bhagwat said he took Constitutional measures to ensure societal equality, "but law and order cannot bring equality; the inequality has to be wiped out of our minds".
K B Hedgewar, the founding chief of RSS, Bhagwat said, worked all his life for empowerment of the nation.
"He kept welfare of the nation ahead of everything. He took part in all the movements. Hedgewar was jailed (for participating) in freedom struggle under Congress before formation of RSS," he said.
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Bhagwat said acceptance of diversity was needed to achieve social unity and strength to make the country strong.

"Accept diversity. Look at all with equanimity and affection. Get rid of disparities and the sense of superiority and inferiority. This will lead to a social unity and ultimately to a country's strength," he said, addressing a massive rally of RSS swayamsevaks drawn from Western Maharashtra region.
Asserting that strength should be accompanied by character, Bhagwat said RSS was committed to the values of service and sacrifice. "A nation is not run by government and leaders. It's the responsibility of people to ensure that leaders and government behave properly," he said.
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Over one lakh RSS activists converged at the venue 'Shiv Shakti Sangam', about 20 km from the city.

Earlier, Bhagwat inspected the traditional drill by Swayamsevaks, moving in a jeep at the sprawling ground where songs and the Sangh prayer were sung by the mammoth gathering.
Regular policemen appeared to have taken a backseat as RSS activists directed the traffic. An unending flow of vehicles caused long queues and traffic jams.
Those present included Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar who turned out in RSS uniform.