Enough time to build Ram temple: RSS

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has said that the NDA government at the Centre need not hurry to fulfill the BJP’s election promise to construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

It reasoned that the government has plenty of time to facilitate the construction of the Ram temple and issues of higher priority should be dealt with first.

“The Ram temple issue was in the BJP election manifesto. The Centre has till 2019 to act on the same. It will act in accordance with priority,” RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said while speaking to reporters here on Friday.

The three-day meeting of the RSS central working committee (Kendriya Karyakari Mandal) started here on Friday.

Hosabale said the government had enough time and there was need to “hurry” with the issue that has “national character”. He, however, said the RSS would support the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) if it decided to bring up the construction of the temple.

The RSS joint general secretary seemed to skirt the controversial issue of “love jihad”, saying his organisation had been objecting to the practice for 10 years. He also praised the Union government for taking a firm stand on Pakistan’s ceasefire violations along the Line of Control.

Hosabale said the RSS was expanding at a steady rate and would strive to continue this trend. “We have opened 485 new branches and reached 800 new places in the last three years,” he added.

The RSS also took up the government’s recent Clean India Mission during the meeting and will launch programmes to develop civic sense and create awareness among the masses on environmental protection.

Earlier, participants in the meeting paid tributes to jawans killed in Pakistani firing along the border and also to the flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir.