Advani backs Rajnath on Ram temple

BJP president Rajnath Singh’s stress on Hindutva got a stamp of approval on Sunday from party prime ministerial candidate LK Advani, who deviated from the written text to make a special reference to Ram Janmabhoomi.

After Rajnath’s speech the previous day, several leaders had tried to play down the revival of the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and indicated that the party campaign would revolve around developmental issues. Advani’s reference is being seen as an attempt to send out a clear signal that there are no differences in the party. It was also aimed at reassuring RSS.

Explaining the revival of the Ayodhya Ram temple issue, a party leader said it had returned to centre stage due to “Babri mosque demolisher” Kalyan Singh leaving the BJP to join arch rival and Babri protagonist Mulayam Singh.

Advani, while explaining the party’s belief in a secular system rather than a theocracy, said, “Be it Ram Sethu or Ram temple, we never abandoned Ram.”

Addressing party members on the last day of the three-day BJP national executive and national council meeting, he said to loud applause that the slogan Jai Sri Ram would ring true when a ‘magnificent temple’ is constructed in Ayodhya.

Afzal execution within 100 days
Advani said if the NDA came to power at the Centre, it would recommend Afzal Guru’s execution to the president within the first 100 days as “a warning to the merchants of death and their sponsors” that “we shall follow a zero-tolerance and zero-compromise approach to dealing with terrorism.”