HVK Archives: VHP getting temple ready in bits and pieces
VHP getting temple ready in bits and pieces - Business standard
Sudesh K Verma
()
April 4, 1998
Title: VHP getting temple ready in bits and pieces
Author: Sudesh K Verma
Publication: Business standard
Date: April 4, 1998
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has undertaken piecemeal construction
of a temple in the hope that it will be in a position to put the
structure together at the site of the proposed Ram temple at
Ayodhya.
Some VHP leaders are confident that not with standing the
Vajpayee governments announcement that constructing the temple is
not on its agenda, it will take steps to acquire the disputed
site at Ayodhya and facilitate the construction of a magnificent
Ram temple when ever it can.
At this point of time, the VHP hopes to quickly move materials,
prefabricated structures and supporters to the site.
VHP leaders have decided not to embarrass the government by
raising the Ayodhya issue publicly for some time. Instead, they
are systematically preparing for an opportune moment.
Their immediate task, they say, is to complete pre-construction
work for the proposed temple. This includes the construction of
stone blocks, pillars and doors at four workshops, three in
Rajasthan and one at Ayodhya.
The organisation has decided to add a new workshop to the
existing one at Ayodhya, VHP secretary-general Girirai Kishore
told Business Standard yesterday.
These decisions were taken at the VHP's two-day governing council
meeting which concluded at Faridabad on Thursday. The Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh was represented at the meeting by the chief of
its social service wing, Surya Narayan Rao.
The RSS has informally decided not to embarrass the government
and has directed all its affiliate organisations to go soft while
attacking the BJP-led coalition.
In order to prepare the country for a fresh dose of Hindutva and
to keep people ready for another temple movement - if it is later
deemed necessary - the VHP has also decided to launch a
countrywide 'gau-rakhsha rath' (cow protection movement). The
governments national agenda also makes an indirect reference to
cow protection.
Afraid of being charged with going soft on the temple issue, VHP
activists plan to convince people that neither the VHP nor the
BJP has given up on constructing the Temple. They will explain
that, though the government had to carry all the coalition
partners along, it would try to resolve the issue through
dialogue with Muslim leaders, said Giriraj Kishore.
Kishore, however, said in case the government failed to resolve
the issue through either dialogue or legislation, the VHP would
launch an awareness campaign. He refused to say whether the
campaign would be on the pattern of the Ayodhya agitation of the
early 1990s. "There are many forms of awareness," is all he would
say.
The VHP's two day sant conference at Haridwar from April 10 is
slated to formulate a detailed plan of action on this score,
another VHP leader said.
Kishore has been saying that all the building material would be
complete in three years. Now the plan is to complete the task in
a shorter time, perhaps two Years, so that construction can start
on a turnkey basis.
The VHP's confidence on the Ayodhya front is demonstrated by the
fact that building activity at the four workshop, three in
Rajasthan's Shirohi district and one at Ramghat in Ayodhya, are
in full swing. The task is to prepare stone blocks totalling
2.75 lakh cu ft. Of these, two lakh cu ft block would be in
sandstone, 45000 cu ft in granite and 30000 cu ft in marble.
The proposed temple is to be 132 ft high and 170 ft long. Its
width would be about 60 ft. It will comprise a Simha dwar, Nritya
mandal and the Garbha griha.
At present, all the four workshops have been preparing building
material for the Garbha griha. Already, 25 per cent of the
preparatory work is complete, a VHP office-bearer who visited the
site recently disclosed. The temple would consist of 162
sandstone pillars, of which 40 are ready and work is in progress
on another 24. Sculptures of 24 gods and goddesses would be
engraved on each of the pillars divided into five parts.
Earlier, the VHP had only one workshop. Stones from Rajasthan
were transported to Ayodhya, where workers from Uttar Pradesh
and Rajasthan carved them. Losses owing to breakage during
transportation were, however, high, and this forced the VHP to
set up three workshop in Sirohi in 1996. These workshops also
prepared the material for construction of the Swamy Narayan
temple in London, he said.
The organisation purchased modern machine tolls for stone cutting
and polishing. The cost of labour and machines purchased till now
would work out to about Rs 7 crore, he pointed out. The trolleys
for carrying the stones from the site to workshop to godown are
fitted with aeroplane tyres. The total expenditure might come to
much more than the original plan of Rs 35-40 crore on temple
construction but this might increase, as this was worked out in
1990.
The work is being supervised by Chandrakant sompura, whose family
members were involved in the construction of the somnath temple
when Vallabhbhai Patel was the Union home minister.
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