Shiv Sena removed roadblocks in Ram temple construction: Raut

Team Udayavani, Jul 20, 2020, 6:18 PM IST

Mumbai:  Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday claimed his party paved the way to the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and removed roadblocks in the temple construction for the cause of Hindutva and not for politics.

It needs to be seen how many people will be invited for the temple’s ground-breaking ceremony next month and what social distancing measures will be taken at the event (in view of the COVID-19 outbreak), he said.

“What ‘political social distancing’ they will observe remains to be seen,” Raut told reporters.

Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray always visits Ayodhya and ties between the party and the Uttar Pradesh town are intact, he said.

Raut’s comments came when asked if Thackeray will visit Ayodhya on August 5 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit the town for the ”bhoomi pujan” ceremony to begin the construction of a grand Ram temple there.

“Uddhav Thackeray always goes to Ayodhya. He went (to Ayodhya) when he was not the chief minister, and he also went there after becoming the chief minister. The ties of the Shiv Sena and Ayodhya are intact. It is not a political relation. We never went to Ayodhya for politics,”Raut said.

“It is the Shiv Sena which laid the road to the Ram temple. It removed the main roadblocks in the run up to the construction of the temple at the place where Lord Ram was born. That was not for politics. But the Shiv Sainiks made sacrifices out of faith and Hindutva,” he said.

Raut said the prime minister will visit Ayodhya after the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra – the trust set up for the temple construction – invited the latter.

On NCP chief Sharad Pawar saying some think building a temple will help eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic, Raut said, “The fight against coronavirus is being fought by our doctors in white attire, whom we call devdoot (messenger of God).” He added that Sena”s party’s faith in religion and God is intact.

In November last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the disputed site in Ayodhya will be given to a government-run trust for the building of a temple. Muslims, the court said, will be given a five-acre “suitable” plot elsewhere in the district.

The landmark verdict in the case – a religious and political flashpoint for decades was passed by the five-judge constitution bench amid called for peace by religious leaders across the country.