Rajnath Singh calls for patience as BJP MP demands law for Ram temple at party meet

The Ram temple issue echoed at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party with a Uttar Pradesh MP demanding enactment of a law for its early construction while Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh advised him to keep patience.

The issue raised by the party's Ghosi MP Hari Narayan Rajbhar was supported by Salempur parliamentarian Ravindra Kushwaha while other MPs present in the meeting clapped in support of the demand.

"Thoda intezar kijiye (wait for sometime)," Singh said in his response.

Rajbhar said this is an issue of faith and needs to be addressed at the earliest and the best way to do it is by enacting a law in Parliament.

The demand for legislation to construct Ram temple in Ayodhya grew after the Supreme Court adjourned the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute hearing to January 2019.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on many occasions has spoken in its favour and demanded an appropriate and requisite law for early construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The VHP and Hindu priests, too, have been pressuring the government for an ordinance or law.

In the meeting, the BJP MPs were asked to aggressively counter Congress president Rahul Gandhi's campaign against the BJP government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Neither Modi nor BJP chief Amit Shah was present in the meeting.

Sources said that Rajnath Singh asked the BJP MPs to work hard for the party's victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and said that the opposition party had no leader to match Modi's popularity.

Later talking to reporters after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad briefed the MPs on the Triple Talaq Bill and the Supreme Court's judgement on the Rafale deal.

"Our priority is to get the Triple Talaq Bill passed in this session," Tomar said adding that the court's decision on the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 was also discussed in the meeting.

The government introduced the Triple Talaq Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

This was the second meeting of the BJP parliamentary party this session. In the last meeting, neither the Prime Minister nor the BJP president spoke.