Temple in Ayodhya "eternal issue" for Hindus, says Ravishankar Prasad

ALLAHABAD: Dropping ample hints that BJP may rake up the issue of Hindutva during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, senior party leader Ravishankar Prasad today said construction of a temple in Ayodhya was an "eternal issue for millions of Hindus across the world".


"I am proud to say that I happened to fight the Hindus' case in the Ayodhya title suit on which the Allahabad High Court gave its historic judgement in our favour.

"I am confident that we will stand vindicated before the Supreme Court as well," Prasad said here at a seminar held to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The BJP leader said,"construction of a temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya has never been an electoral issue for the party. But, nevertheless, it is an eternal issue for millions of Hindus across the world".

Training guns at the media "sitting comfortably in Delhi," Prasad questioned as to "why they are afraid of questioning the UP minister Azam Khan over Muzaffarnagar riots."

They keep targeting Narendra Modi despite there is no instance of communal clash in Gujarat for the last 10 years.

"The city of Ahmedabad witnessed scores of riots, in which thousands of lives were lost, while Gujarat was under the Congress rule. Compare that with the BJP regime and the difference will be there for all to see.

"Modi has been able to maintain peace in Gujarat for a decade, Akhilesh Yadav failed to do so here for even a year".

Attacking Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who severed 17-year-old bond with BJP over the elevation of Modi, Prasad alleged that "Bihar police was forced to hand over top Indian Mujahideen militant Yaseen Bhatkal to the National Investigating Agency without conducting any interrogation".

"The terrorist, who is named in a number of bomb attacks, had established his network in several districts of Bihar, but Kumar wanted to sweep the whole thing under the carpet for vote bank," he alleged.

However, our opponents will not be able to withstand a strong wave in favour of BJP and Narendra Modi, which is visible across the country, the BJP leader said.

Prasad also criticised Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's recent letter to Chief Ministers asking them to ensure that innocent Muslims are not "wrongly" detained in terror cases as "a blatant example of dividing the people of the country along religious lines for vote bank".

"The UPA government observes no decorum in its pursuit of minority votes. A few months ago, Shinde had used the term saffron terror which was strongly opposed by us in Parliament.

"Ours has been a different approach. We view Muslims as citizens of the country," the BJP leader said.