Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu made headlines after he said all Indians wanted the building of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
In a press conference after the Rajya Sabha was adjourned over the same issue on Wednesday, NDTV reported Naidu as saying,
All countrymen want a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. How, when and what is the question.
He, however, refused to elaborate on his comment.
Opposition members had entered the well of the House over the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s reported move to collect engraved stones for construction of the temple, in the Rajya Sabha, earlier in the day.
The BJP burst into prominence in the late 1980s after it helped mobilise a movement leading to the destruction of a 16th-century mosque in the Uttar Pradesh town of Ayodhya that Hindus claimed was built on the birthplace of the god-king Ram.
About 2,000 people were killed in riots across India in 1992 after the disputed mosque was torn down by Hindu mobs.
Earlier this month, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat sparked a furore after he said that constructing the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is the only way to elevate the motherland because it is Lord Ram’s birth place and the Ram Mandir is not just any other temple.
He also said constructing the Ram Mandir should be everyone’s ‘Supreme Goal’.
(With agency inputs)
Read The Quint’s seven-part series decoding the events that led to the demolition of the disputed structure.
Ayodhya DeQoded, Part 1: Ram Lalla and a Contrived Miracle
Ayodhya DeQoded, Part 2: Did a Divine Monkey Unlock Babri Masjid?
Ayodhya DeQoded, Part 3: Ram Mandir First Politicised by Congress
Ayodhya DeQoded, Part 4: Political Desperation Led to Shilanyas
DeQoded Ayodhya,Part 5: Mandal’s Caste & Quota vs BJP’s Rath & Ram
Ayodhya DeQoded, Part 6: The Making of “Mullah Mulayam”
Ayodhya DeQoded, Part 7: Demolition of the Disputed Structure
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