The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) seems to have woken up to a reality: the demolition of temples in Jaipur by the state government.
About 100 big and small temples, some as old as Jaipur, were demolished to facilitate construction of the metro railway and to ease vehicular traffic here.
And the Sangh is clearly not happy about it.
Destroyed: A temple is being demolished by the authorities to make way for the Metro rail project in Jaipur
Visibly perturbed over the adverse public perception, state leaders of the Sangh and its affiliate socio-cultural bodies, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Hindu Jagran Manch, met over the weekend at Bharti Bhawan, the state RSS headquarters, and came out with a call for a two-hour long ‘chakka jam’ (traffic blockade) from 9am to 11am on July 9.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s joint general-secretary V. Satish was in Jaipur to discuss this development with the party’s state leadership on Monday.
A technical committee of RSS office bearers on Sunday and Monday surveyed the destruction of the city’s old temples and heritage.
The fact-finding report — incorporating details of the demolished temples and damaged idols that were shifted under a roof, and the allurements allegedly offered to the priests of various temples — will be sent to the national headquarters of the RSS at Nagpur, sources said.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot took a dig at the RSS leadership and called the fear over demolition a “drama staged jointly by the RSS-BJP”
The report will also mention the objectionable roles played by the government officials involved, and the silence of the elected representatives over the “operation demolition”.
The RSS leadership on Saturday summoned all the nine BJP legislators of the city, including state BJP president Ashok Parnami, three Cabinet ministers – Education Minister Kali Charan Saraf, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi and Urban Development Minister Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, Jaipur MP Ram Charan Bohra and city BJP chief Sanjay Jain to pull them up for remaining silent spectators during the temple demolition.
The RSS leadership reportedly asked them whether they were sleeping when the temples, as old as 250 years like the Rozgareshwar Mahadev and Nawal Kishore temples in the walled city, were being destroyed and people’s feelings were hurt.
At some temples force was used against the protesters and arrests were made, they pointed out.
Meanwhile, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot took a dig at RSS leadership and called it a “drama staged jointly by the RSS-BJP”.
“Had there been the Congress government and a single temple was touched in this manner they (RSS-BJP) would have protested like anything and communal riots would have been ignited,” he commented.
“Waking up after a deep slumber they (RSS leadership) have come after everything has taken place. Where were they when the temples were being demolished?” he said.
Earlier, at a meeting of senior RSS leaders and various socio-cultural frontal organisations of the Sangh at the Bharti Bhawan, the action plan was prepared in the presence of Kshetriya Pracharak Durgadas and Prant Pracharak Shiv Lehari.
The heads of various organisations pointed out that the demolition of large number of temples had tarnished the image of the Sangh Parivar.
It was the general consensus that if no protest was organised it would be difficult to face the general public.
It was pointed out at the meeting that temples continued to be destroyed despite memorandums submitted to the government, local legislators, MP and ministers, VHP representatives pointed out.
It was decided at the meeting that the elected representatives of the BJP would be kept at arm’s length during the protest under the banner of the Hindu Jagran Manch.
The protest would be manned only by the swayamsevaks, office bearers of all RSS shakhas in Jaipur, activists of the affiliate organisations, and other bodies.