* Pejawar Seer calls cadres to get ready for hunger strike

* Janagraha rallies held in Bengaluru, Udupi and Bagalkot

Bengaluru: Leaders of VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and other right-wing organisations announced that they will not rest until they succeed in building the Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya. They have asked the BJP government at the Centre to bring an Ordinance to build the temple as aspired by ‘every Hindu’ after the Courts had delayed the wish of the major community.

At the Janagraha rally organised by the VHP at National College Grounds in Bengaluru yesterday, a number of religious heads participated besides office-bearers of organisations including RSS. Similar rallies for the Temple were held yesterday at Udupi and Bagalkot.

Speaking at the event held in Bengaluru, Pejawar Mutt seer Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji threatened to undertake a fast if the government did not pave the way for building Ram Temple in Ayodhya, by bringing an Ordinance. “Building Ram Mandir is a national duty and a matter of pride for all Hindus. We will not stop until we realise our goal,” he said.

The pontiff called upon fellow seers and heads of religious institutions to fix a date to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for a law for construction of the temple. “The time has come to question Modi. I know he will oblige if we all meet him in a delegation. If he doesn’t, then we all will have to go on a hunger strike,” he said, describing the Apex Court’s decision to defer the Ram Mandir case to January 2019 as “an insult to Hindus   and Lord Ram”.

The 88-year-old seer also expressed concern over the delay in construction of the temple. “I am increasingly getting the feeling that I will not see the temple being constructed in my lifetime,” the seer said.

However he reiterated that the temple should be built with everyone’s consent and the movement should not be given a   communal colour.

Calling upon Muslims to cooperate with Hindus on the issue, he said: “It is a golden opportunity for Muslims. You have nothing to lose if you give away disputed land for the temple.”

VHP Secretary Milind Parande regretted the delay by the Courts over the matter of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and said if Narendra Modi Government did not make a decisive move, ‘’it will lose its faith among the Hindus’’.

Meanwhile, BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has said that his party was not thinking of bringing an ordinance “as of now” for construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

He, however, asserted that it was only the BJP that could construct the Ram Temple at Ayodhya as “no one else has the guts” to do it.

At the rally in Udupi, Paryaya Seer Vidyadheesha Theertha Swamiji said that there was a demand for the Ram Temple nationwide.