Ayodhya land dispute: Consensus not easy, Ram temple will be built, says RSS

Nagpur: The RSS on Sunday said building a consensus on the Ayodhya dispute was not going to be easy, but stressed that a Ram Temple - "and nothing else" - would be constructed in the Uttar Pradesh town.

RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi also stressed that the matter was sub judice.

"It is certain that the Ram Temple will be constructed at that place (Ayodhya) and nothing else can be built there, this is also decided, Joshi told reporters in Nagpur on the sidelines of the RSS's all-important Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha meeting.

Confident of a favourable judgment from the Supreme Court on the matter, Joshi said the construction of temple would begin after the court's order and it would be built on the basis of its verdict on the ownership of land.

Replying to a question on spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar's efforts at developing consensus between the different parties on the issue, Joshi said consensus building was not going to be easy.

"We have always maintained that the temple should be constructed with mutual agreement but our experience tells us that building a consensus on this issue is not easy,” Joshi said.

Though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader said he welcomed Ravi Shankar's efforts at negotiations, he pointed out that there were different groups in society with varied outlooks and to build a consensus among them would be difficult.

Joshi was also asked about a demand for a minority religion status for the Lingayat community in Karnataka.

"We do not support that," he said.

The next hearing in the Ayodhya dispute, to determine ownership of the 2.77-acre Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi disputed land, is to come up before the Supreme Court on March 14.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and SA Najeeb is hearing the case.