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Hardline Hindus Impose Deadline For Temple Construction
ALLAHABAD, India (News Agencies) - Hardline Hindus at a religious summit Saturday gave the Indian government until March 12th next year to "remove all obstacles" from the construction of a controversial temple on the site of a razed mosque.
Construction of the temple to the Hindu warrior Lord Rama would begin on "any auspicious day" after March 12th, which marks a major Hindu festival, on the site of the former Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya, a statement issued at the summit said.
Hindu fundamentalists razed the 16th century mosque on December 6, 1992. The sacrilege sparked nationwide sectarian riots that left at least 2,000 people - mostly Muslims - dead.
The deadline was imposed at a summit sponsored by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Forum) at the Maha Kumbh Mela Hindu pilgrimage on the banks of the Ganges River near the town of Allahabad.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the summit of 4,000 Hindu holy men and other religious leaders said 2002 marked the golden jubilee of the renovation of Somnath Temple to Lord Shiva.
That temple had been razed by an invading Muslim king in circumstances similar to the destruction of the Babri mosque.
"And so it will be in fitness of things to start the temple construction in Ayodhya during the year," a summit statement said.
VHP general secretary Pravinbhai Togadia said the temple "may not be an agenda of the government but surely it is an agenda of Hindu society."
He was referring to a New Year warning by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that a status quo on the temple-mosque row would have to be maintained.
"The parties which choose not to abide by our deadline or go against it will be finally wiped out from the political map," added Togadia
Mahant Ramchandra Paramhans, a Hindu sadhu (Hindu holy man) who spearheaded the campaign for the temple, said: "It is time our prime minister starts working on this issue. It is because of the Rama temple that he and his government are in power."
The Babri mosque's razing and the emotive campaign for the Rama temple has helped Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist BJP party, which has close links with the VHP in parliamentary elections.
Paramhans added: "If he [Vajpayee] builds the temple and goes by what we say, then he will become PM for a fourth time. If the government does not comply with our demands and remove the impediments, then it will fall."
The construction plans are timed to coincide with state polls in Uttar Pradesh, India's most politically important state, where Ayodhya is located.
The resolution said an eight-day march by Hindu saints would start from Ayodhya on February 18th next year and move to New Delhi to pressure Vajpayee's government.
It said the march aims "to remove all obstacles in the way of the temple construction and hand over the disputed site to the Hindus for the purpose."
The three-day religious summit opened on Friday at the Maha Kumbh Mela - the world's largest religious gathering.
Senior holy men who stayed away from the summit and accused the forum of using the temple-mosque row for political ends initially challenged the VHP's campaign.
But Shankaracharya Vasudevanand Saraswarti of Badri Kashi Peeth, one of Hinduism's four most senior priests - who stayed away from the summit - said he welcomed the decisions taken.
"I liked the decisions and I welcome them wholeheartedly," he said.
The VHP also said Hindus across India would offer special prayers to Shiva from September 18th to October 18th this year and that a "mass awakening campaign" would be launched on November 26th for the temple's construction.
Analysts in New Delhi said the resolution deliberately did not give an exact start date for the construction to pressure Vajpayee and his Hindu nationalist BJP party.
"The open-ended year offered in the resolution will be like the Democles' sword and the pressure will slowly work not only on the BJP party but also on some of the allies of the coalition government," said political analyst Anand Ojha.
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