Mumbai: Welcoming the ‘historic’ ruling of the SC in the country’s oldest land dispute, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Saturday said no political party, be it BJP or Shiv Sena can ever take credit for the Ram Mandir verdict. Not only the saffron parties, even their leaders, be it Narendra Modi or Uddhav Thackeray, can claim credit on the ‘sensitive’ issue, which has been resolved by the apex court, the RSS said.
A five-judge constitution bench, led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi handed over the 2.77-acre site in Ayodhya, UP, the epicentre of independent India’s biggest religio-political dispute. The bench, comprising Justices Sharad Arvind Bobde, Dhananjay Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, ordered the allocation of a 5 acre ‘suitable’ plot to construct a mosque.
Speaking exclusively with the Free Press Journal, Pramod Bapat, the prachar pramukh said the RSS believes it is the victory of the nation and of no community or political entity. “Entire nation is welcoming this verdict. The judges gave a unanimous ruling after patiently hearing all the parties and considering all the contentions. I think, it is such a ruling, which would not give a feeling that someone has lost and someone has won,” Bapat told the FPJ.
The ideological mentor of the saffron parties clarified the dispute was a pure ‘legal dispute.’ “No one has lost and no one has won in this dispute. It can be safely said it was not a fight but a litigation, which was democratically heard and has now been concluded by our country’s apex court,” the RSS prachar pramukh said.
Trashing the claims of a few BJP leaders, the RSS spokeperson Bapat said no one can take credit on this victory. No single party and no single leader is a sculptor of the apex court’s conclusion. It would be wrong to say the Ram Mandir would be constructed only because of Modi, (Amit) Shah or (Uddhav) Thackeray. In fact, it is the power of Indians that needs to be given credit alone,” Bapat clarified.
Clearing the air, Bapat said the land dispute was not four decades long and instead it was nearly a century old. “Back then, I am speaking of nearly 104 years ago, there was no BJP, no Sena neither were there any Modi, Shah or Thackeray. Thus, these parties or people cannot take any credit,” Bapat said.
Citicising BJP for taking credits, Bapat also showed ‘trust’ in the saffron party, that it would expedite the construction of the temple.
“Now the Centre will have to abide by the court order and form a committee or the trust to construct the temple at the earliest. We will support the govt as we have full faith in the Modi-led dispensation as constructing a temple was their basic agenda for all poll,” Bapat added.
