Best way to tackle terror is to build temple: Sangh’s new Ayodhya line

This forms the key theme of the VHP’s current temple campaign—openly supported by both the RSS and the BJP—as it builds up towards the Ayodhya march on October 15.

This theme is packaged in an audio cassette of songs and speeches, a 4-page leaflet, a sampark sutra (a thread to be tied to the wrist) and the soil of Ramjanmabhoomi called Ayodhya ki rajj—meant to adorn the foreheads of those who vow to join in.

VHP leaders say they have targeted 2 crore people to receive this package. Already, VHP campaigners have fanned out in villages and towns to enlist supporters for the march.

The cassette contains speeches of VHP working president Ashok Singhal and general secretary Pravin Togadia, a speech by Swami Satyamitranand Giri of Bharat Mata Mandir and a song written specifically for the campaign. In true spirit of the temple-terror blend, part-A of the cassette has Singhal’s discourse on the temple, while Togadia holds forth on Islamic terrorism in part-B.

The speech by the Swami and the song are the same on both sides. The campaigners can play whichever side they wish to suit a particular locality and audience. Singhal is his familiar self: calling for mass mobilisation to build the temple; arguing against a court settlement.

Togadia, who has traditionally kept a low profile on the Ayodhya issue, minces few words on the tape: ‘‘Do you want to be bombed with your child in your home while you are asleep? Do you want AK-47 bullets instead of prasad when you go to a temple? Do you want your bodies to reach hospitals when you go to a railway station to catch a train?’’

He says thanks to ‘‘Islamic jehad, Gandhari’s Gandhar is Afghanistan of one-eyed Mullah Omar,’’ and ‘‘Hindus are as unsafe in India today as in Aurangzeb’s rule.’’

There is a call from Togadia to Hindus to fight ‘‘secularists and Tableegh activists.’’ He gives them tips to identify Tableegh activists. ‘‘They would be wearing their elder brother’s kurtas, reaching up to their feet, and younger brothers’ pyjamas.’’

If Togadia is there for his hate speech, Giri has been fielded for a more sophisticated task: to take a swipe at BJP. He says: ‘‘Those who had awakened the Hindus and has said that if they win, they will protect Sanskrit, impose a ban on cow-slaughter, build a Ram temple and remove the blots on Kashi and Mathura, seem to be drifting away from us.’’

He goes on to say that ‘‘some of our own revered great men are being influenced by power and individual gains.’’ He calls for a mass mobilisation for the cause of the Ram temple and underlines that ‘‘gau (cow), Ganga and gayatri (hymn) are our sources of inspiration.’’

The chorus is just appropriate: Utho Jawano bela aayi mandir ke nirman ki, Awadhpuri ko chalna hai ab baazi hai samman ki.

The VHP has divided the country into 8,000 blocks for the campaign. It has made a special effort to rope in all shades of sadhus and ascetics in the drive. They plan to step up the campaign from October 6 when 85 groups of sadhus will cover 100 villages each in districts adjacent to Ayodhya in a span of seven days.