MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Tuesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party of their motives of constructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece Saamana warned the BJP of being thrown out of power if it fails to build the temple, as it promised.
In an editorial titled "Ram Mandir banao, nahi toh Ram naam satya hai," Sena says, "When BJP came to power in both Centre and Uttar Pradesh, we believed that the Ram Temple will soon be constructed in Ayodhya but nothing happened. Now, Prime Minister Modi and other Hindutva people are not uttering a single word regarding the construction of Ram Temple."
Sena also alleged that the temple issue has been reduced only to a poll promise for the BJP. "Shri Ram has shown the good days to BJP but Ram still lives in exile in Ayodhya. It is a pretence to say that Ram temple is going to be in the Supreme Court. You did not ask the Supreme Court when you started the 'Battle of Ram Mandir' twenty-five years ago," Sena said.
Citing the example of spiritual leader Swami Paramhans Das, the Mahant of Ayodhya's Tapaswi Chhawni, who sat on an indefinite hunger strike for seven continuous days demanding the construction of Ram Temple and was later detained by the police, the Sena said: "The government is causing trouble to those who are raising a demand for the construction of Ram Temple," Sena alleged.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had earlier said that party president Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya soon and ensure that the temple is built. He had added that "without Shiv Sena's power, determination and belief Ram Temple cannot be built. "If Ram Mandir cannot be built now, it can never be constructed again," Raut had said.
