BJP mulls movement on Lord Ram

Reviving memories of its Ayodhya campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday warned the Centre that it would launch a nationwide movement if it did not immediately withdraw its affidavit that there was no historical evidence to prove Lord Ram's existence.

BJP chief Rajnath Singh, who is in Guwahati, told PTI over phone that he had requested former deputy prime minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, who led the Ram temple movement in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, to discuss the matter with party office-bearers.

"The government has set in motion the process of questioning religious beliefs. We will launch a nationwide movement if it does not withdraw immediately this blasphemous submission questioning the very existence of Lord Ram," Rajnath Singh said.

He also accused the government of insulting the Constitution, which he said contained images of Ram, Sita and Hanuman.

"The government has made an assault on Hindu sentiments, which cannot be tolerated at any cost," the BJP chief said.

Rajnath Singh alleged that the Congress-led government had no regard for Mahatma Gandhi's "Ram Rajya" call.

On Wednesday night, Advani lodged his protest with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he met him over dinner in Hyderabad House.

"I told the prime minister that the affidavit was highly objectionable. I met the law minister also and told him that it should be immediately withdrawn," the former deputy prime minister told PTI after his meeting with Dr Singh.

In election mode, the BJP has drawn a parallel between the row over the Sethusamudram shipping canal project and its Ram temple movement, saying it found similarity in the ruling Congress' response to the saffron objections in both the cases.