Parivar polishes its temple bricks

On the 13th anniversary of his rath yatra, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today declared that Ram mandir will be built at the same spot ...

On the 13th anniversary of his rath yatra, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today declared that Ram mandir will be built at the same spot in Ayodhya, fulfilling the wishes of the people and strengthening national unity. Advani said he was convinced that an enduring solution would not come from the courts or from a legislation but from an agreement among various communities.

‘‘I am optimistic that it will happen soon,’’ he said. However, this was a declaration from a public forum. Later, talking to mediapersons accompanying him from Delhi, Advani admitted that had the structure at Ayodhya not fallen, the BJP would have got a clear majority. ‘‘The party’s credibility suffered. And the credibility of the movement we had built so meticulously was destroyed,’’ he said.

Giving the background of the movement, the Deputy Prime Minister said as an ally of Janata Dal-led government then, he had undertaken the rath yatra in 1990, starting from Somnath, to build a national movement for building of the temple. He had promised ‘‘the biggest mass movement in the history of independent India.’’

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‘‘The journey which I undertook then is still continuing and I am sure it is close to its destination,’’ Advani said, adding that even Muslims had come to him and extended support for building the temple there. He was addressing a gathering after unveiling a portrait of Sardar Singh Rana, a revolutionary leader, in Veraval near Somnath. However, before that he went to the Somnath temple and performed puja, an annual ritual for him.

Talking about the significance of the day, he said he had chosen this particular date because it was also the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. And the place — Somnath temple — had been chosen because it too had been rebuilt after being razed.