Author:
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: February 14, 2002
There are two versions of Mahant
Ramchandra Paramhans, head of the Ramnandiya Dighamber Akhara and, more
importantly, chief of the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas, the organisation that spearheads
moves to construct a temple at the site where, prior to December 6, 1992,
stood the Babri Mosque.
One version was on view at the Kumbh
Mela in Prayag last year -- a fire-breathing, vitriol-spewing orator. The
other version is the one you see when you visit him in his akhara.
This is the second time I've met
him in the sprawling akhara a few hundred yards away from the disputed
site -- and on both occasions, the abiding impression has been of a man
who can, with reason and logic and without ever needing to raise his voice,
convince you that night is day.
The entrance to the akhara sports
an aide memoire of the event that catapulted the mahant into the national
spotlight -- a small fenced-in enclosure bearing a memorial to the 'martyrs'
of the 1990 kar seva.
Inside, Mahant Paramhans -- who,
if he is 90 years old as he says he is, has drunk deep of the fountain
of good health -- holds court, seated on a jute mattress as he deals with
the nitty-gritty of running his akhara.
As the countdown for his announced
deadline for construction of the temple looms, Mahant Paramhans took time
off to discuss the controversy in detail with Prem Panicker. Excerpts:
Q. Could you spell out your agitational
programme for the coming months?
We have given March 12 as our deadline.
On March 13 and 14, lakhs of karsevaks will arrive in Ayodhya. And on the
15th, they will ceremoniously begin work on the temple.
Q. Is that an unalterable deadline?
Just yesterday, VHP chief Ashok Singhal in a public meeting announced that
if the central government needed more time to resolve the issue, the VHP
was prepared to extend the deadline.
Our deadline was not given overnight
-- even during the Prayag Kumbh, I had announced March 12 as the deadline
for the government to remove all obstacles standing in the way of construction
of the temple. They don't have to move mountains. All they have to do is
study a piece of paper and pass an order -- for which the time I have given
them is sufficient. I don't know why Singhal said that the deadline will
be extended -- it is the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas that is constructing the
temple and we have already made our intentions clear. In fact, our preliminary
preparations have begun.
Q. What do those preparations consist
of?
We recently conducted a Chetavani
Yatra from Ayodhya to New Delhi, where we met the government and reminded
them of the deadline. Meanwhile, behind my akhara and in other places in
Ayodhya, preparations are on for a series of yagyas honouring Bhagwan Ram,
Shivji, and other deities. These yagyas will begin on February 25, and
they are intended as purification rituals before the actual construction
begins.
Q. The general feeling, however,
is that this talk of temple construction is merely a ploy to consolidate
the Hindu vote on behalf of the BJP.
The dates were announced in Prayag
last year. At that time, there was no notification of the elections --
so how can they now say that what we are doing is to help the BJP win these
elections?
Q. But even during the Prayag Kumbh,
it was known that elections to the state assembly would be held early this
year, probably in February-March -- therefore, the date could have been
fixed keeping the probability in view.
When we met Vajpayee and Advani
in Delhi last month at the end of the Chetavani Yatra, they said that they
are asking for the opinion of the law ministry. In all their public meetings
in Uttar Pradesh, they have been saying that as far as the question of
temple construction is concerned, the rule of law and the will of the courts
will prevail. So, if we say we will build the temple and the BJP says the
will of the courts will dictate, how does our stand help the BJP?
Q. The argument I keep hearing --
even in Ayodhya -- is that the BJP will talk of the courts and the law
and you will talk of temple construction, and in the process, the issue
will remain in the forefront of the public mind, which is the intention
of both the BJP and the VHP.
I haven't heard this argument. Anyone
can say anything. I can say that you are a Samajwadi Party agent who has
come here to make trouble, will you be able to disprove it? In any case,
our deadline is just a month away -- you will see, on March 15, construction
will begin. I will even tell you this much -- the first phase of the construction
will be the erection of four gopura-dwars on the four sides. Everything
has already been built by our artisans in Karsevakpuram, we only need to
carry the material to the site and put it up.
Q. In that case, are you saying
that the rule of the law and the will of the courts, which the BJP swears
by, does not matter to you?
Who is it who does not honour the
courts -- us, or them? I have so far attended every single summons that
I have received, I have given the courts all the respect they deserve.
And yet, people -- mostly the Congressmen -- accuse me of showing contempt
for the courts. This is the same Congress that, in the Shah Bano case,
set aside a Supreme Court judgment and passed a special law to appease
the Muslims. So let me ask this -- if in that case the court's verdict
was not important, if the verdict could be set aside, then why can't you
do it now?
Q. Maybe because the government
fears fresh rioting, bloodshed?
Let me tell you this -- the construction
will take place from March 15, but not a single drop of blood, whether
Hindu's or Muslim's, will be shed. In 1992, it was different -- there was
a structure there, the act of bringing it down created a situation where
there was bloodshed. Now, there is no structure. In fact, a temple to Sri
Ram already exists on the site, there are pujas being done, hundreds of
devotees come there every day. So we are not constructing a temple. The
temple exists, we are merely beautifying it, creating around it a structure
that can do justice to the glory of Sri Ram.
The disputed land in any case is
the small area on which the structure stood, and where Sri Ram's temple
now stands. The rest of the land, over 65 acres, had been given to the
Ram Janambhoomi Nyas on a 99-year lease, there is no dispute about that,
so why has the government taken control of land that is rightfully ours?
How can they stop us from putting up whatever we want on our own land?
Where is the law that says we can't do that?
Q. In Ayodhya, in Faizabad and Lucknow
this time, I have heard people arguing against construction of the temple.
They say that if the VHP is all that concerned about the people, they should
use the crores that have been collected to build roads, bridges, schools,
hospitals.
Where did those crores come from?
From people across the land. We asked people to contribute for the Ram
temple. And they did. Ordinary people, millions of them, gave five rupees,
ten rupees, twenty-one rupees. That is how we collected this money. Tomorrow
when they ask me how I collected money to build a temple and then spent
it on other things, what should I tell them? Suppose someone goes to court
and says we collected money on false pretences, then what will you say?
Q. But does this country really
need a temple now, considering all the heartburn it is causing? Do you
really need to adopt such an adversarial position?
Let me point out something funny.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a Congress leader, wasn't he? And yet it was
he who, recognising the injustice meted out, removed the masjid at Somnath
and got the Shiv temple there restored. For that, he is called 'Lok Nayak',
and he is one of the most respected leaders of the Congress. But when I
want to do something similar here, when I want to build a temple for Ram
on the land of his birth, they call me an aatankvaadi (terrorist) and accuse
me of fostering disunity. Arre bhai, where is the justice here? If Patel
was right, why am I wrong?
Look at Afghanistan. the Taliban
destroyed the Buddha idols and the world condemned it. Now the Taliban
is being destroyed, and the new government says it will restore those Buddha
statues. It is amazing that a Muslim country can be so sensitive to the
feelings of a small minority that it says it will restore those damaged
statues, but in a country where the vast majority of people are Hindus,
we have so much of argument and reluctance to build a temple for Sri Ram
in his own birthplace.
Let me tell you what I told the
courts. I asked them, is the Janambhoomi the birthplace of Ram? Then you
should permit a temple to come up there. Otherwise, you tell me which is
Ram's birthplace, you point out that place, and I will gladly go there
and build a temple. What more can I do?
Q. Have you considered the possibility
that your going ahead with the temple construction can result in the fall
of the BJP government at the Centre?
So what? I made this government,
and if necessary, I will not hesitate to bring it down. How did the BJP
come to power? It was a small party, it had just two members in Parliament.
How did it become so big? Through Lord Sri Ram, through his name, through
the movement for building a temple here. Today, if the party is prepared
to turn its back on Sri Ram, then it will have to suffer the consequences.
When I met Vajpayee in Delhi last
month, he told me that if it came to that, he would resign! Is he threatening
me? When Advani took out his rath yatra from Somnath and Laloo Prasad Yadav
arrested him, Vajpayee withdrew support and caused the fall of the V P
Singh government. And today the same man tells me he will resign?
Actually, I am very fond of Vajpayee.
I know that in his heart, he wants this temple as much as I do. His problem
is that he heads a coalition government and his partners are against the
temple. But that is his problem, he has to solve it himself, I cannot help
him there. And neither can I keep delaying indefinitely -- it was after
consulting many astrologers that we fixed March 12 as the deadline for
the government, so that we could begin construction of the temple on March
15. Now there is no going back.
