Frontline

March-April  2002 
Ayodhya


Build-up

February 7: "The speedy construction of the Ram temple is the only befitting reply to Islamic terrorism which has shaken the pillars of even the Indian Parliament," he said. Togadia said it was high time the government banned the madrassas in the country as they had been converted into factories manufacturing Islamic militants."
Pravin Togadia, VHP international general secretary, in The Times of India

February 7: "I told you, we have had an overdose of these pseudos whom you so fondly call secularists. These self-appointed secularists can no longer fool the Hindus who are aware of the elaborate plan to damage our religion and religious beliefs. Take it from me that our level of tolerance can be stretched no more. And those who come in our way will be pulverised."
Acharya Giriraj Kishore, VHP senior vice-president, in an interview to rediff.com

February 7: "We wouldn’t want to sacrifice the present BJP-led Centre that is sympathetic to our cause. But if it has to go at some stage in the cause of Ram temple construction, we can’t help it."
Ashok Singhal, VHP international president,The Indian Express.

February 7: "It will either have to be Pakistan or the mandir. The mosque constructed by Babur at Ayodhya 450 years ago by destroying the Ram temple and the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre are symbols of Islamic jihad. It is necessary for India, Jews and the Western world to come together and fight Islamic militants."
Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Mumbai, The Asian Age.

February 7: "If our government is ready to finish Pakistan, we are ready to wait. However, our two demands are, take over Pakistan and allow the temple construction. If one is not happening, the other will. Therefore, we have given time to the government till March 12."
Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Mumbai, The Times of India.

February 11: "Solution to the Kashmir problem lies through Ayodhya…. The jehadi mindset has to be defeated at all costs."
Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a news conference in Bhubaneshwar, PTI.

February 11: "Besides contesting the legal action, VHP can go to the people and say that matters of faith cannot be decided by court. They can cite a precedent. The Muslims did not accept the Supreme Court verdict in Shah Bano case and at that time, Congress had brought in a legislation to change that verdict."
Jana Krishnamurthy, BJP president, in an interview in the latest issue of the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya, quoted in The Times of India.

February 11: "We are ready to face anything and even to face the bullets when it’s a question of faith."
Acharya Giriraj Kishore, VHP, at a press conference in Coimbatore, PTI.

February 12: "We are everything. BJP, VHP, RSS. So where is the question of a fight?"
Ambika Nishad, a BJP member of the nagar panchayat, Ayodhya, in The Times of India.

February 14: "We cannot wait for the judiciary to decide the faith of a particular community."
— Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Vijaywada, Newstime.

February 14: "Today a situation has come when no railway station or bus station is safe from the threat of attack from Islamic terrorists. The only option left before the country is to declare a full-fledged war against Islamic militants and defeat it, roundly and squarely."
Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Vijaywada, Deccan Herald.

February 17: "The statements of sants and sadhus never hurt me."
Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the VHP castigating his government’s stand on Ayodhya, at a poll campaign press conference in Lucknow, in The Times of India.

February 19: "The jehadi mentality that led Babar to destroy the Ram temple at Ayodhya more than 400 years ago was the same mentality that led to partition of the country in 1947, attack on the World Trade Center at New York on September 11 last year and attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001."
— Pravin Togadia, at a press conference in Bhopal, PTI.

February 19: "No court in the world has the right, moral or legal, to adjudicate on a matter of faith. The birthplace of Lord Ram is a matter of faith just as Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ was of great significance to the Christians. There is no question of shifting the location of the temple, no matter who had ownership rights to the land."
Pravin Togadia, at a press conference in Bhopal, The Times of India.

February 21: NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today warned of a "Hindu backlash" against those daring to oppose the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya on March 15, even as it made it clear that nothing would now delay the project even for a day. Several VHP leaders spoke simultaneously from different parts of the country — Ashok Singhal and Acharya Giriraj Kishore here, Pravin Togadia from Jaipur and Sadanand Kakade from Kochi - as if to hammer home the point that they are determined to start gathering the crowds of kar sevaks (voluntary workers) at Ayodhya from this weekend to get a 10 lakh strong crowd by March 15 when construction would begin at the pravesh dwar (entrance of the temple), where shilanyas was performed in the late Eighties.
Ashok Singhal, VHP, in The Hindu.

February 21: "If a masjid has to be constructed, it should be done outside the 84 acre area and at a distance which would not lead to any confrontation."
Ashok Singhal, poohpoohing an RSS suggestion that a mosque be constructed on the Saryu river banks in Ayodhya, in an interview to a private TV channel, quoted in The Times of India.

February 21: "When we say clearly there was a temple and it is the birth place of Ram, the Muslims refuse to discuss the matter."
Ashok Singhal, VHP, responding to the suggestion of a negotiated settlement over Ayodhya, The Times of India.

February 22: The sant who has been the spearhead of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and a major Hindutva protagonist has given a call for arming all Hindus "if India was to be saved from disintegration." Ramchandra Paramhans, who heads the powerful Digamabar Akhara in Ayodhya, feels it was high time India discarded the ‘Soft State’ tag.

In an exclusive interview to The Pioneer, Paramhans argued that the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was also aimed at elimination of terror and in these disquiet times, all Hindus should be given arms. He asserted, "Even we are ready to suspend the temple movement and engage ourselves in the protection of our borders."
— Ramchandra Paramhans, chairman, Digamabar Akhara in Ayodhya, The Pioneer.

February 22: "BJP does not need Muslims to form government in UP."
— Atal Behari Vajpayee, PM, at an election rally in Varanasi, The Asian Age.

February 23: (Bajrang Dal national convenor) SK Jain said 20 lakh Dal activists carrying the "trishul" would march to Ayodhya, adding, "they are ready to face any situation." The Dal leader said: "If any Muslim organisation makes an attempt to rebuild the Babri masjid at Ayodhya, the Bajrang Dal would chant Hanuman Chalisa at Delhi’s Jama Masjid."

The Dal had drawn up a list of 3,000 mosques across the country that were built after demolishing temples, Jain said. If Muslims did not respect the sentiments of millions of Hindus, the Dal would not be able to stop a "massive upsurge" against these mosques, he said at the VHP office.
SK Jain, Bajrang Dal national convenor, The Telegraph.

February 23: VADODARA: An altercation between people and VHP supporters in Tankaria village, Bharuch, over an alleged incident of cow slaughter turned violent when a man died in police firing. Trouble started when some VHP men, led by Vadodara-based advocate Jatin Vyas, went to Tankaria around 12 noon to record on camera what he said was large-scale cow slaughter. ‘‘Last year, too, our men with the help of the police seized some cow-laden trucks near the village. Along with some VHP men, I went to the village to film the slaughter,’’ Vyas said. He sought police intervention to stop the alleged slaughter.
Jatin Vyas, VHP leader.

February 26: NEW DELHI: A defiant VHP on Tuesday night said it was determined to go ahead with the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya from March 15 "at all costs"… "We will go ahead with the process of construction from March 15 as announced earlier. We are ready to face bullets or go to jail."
— Acharya Giriraj Kishore, VHP, PTI.

February 27: 57 killed as mob torches train in Gujarat 


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