by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
special report
Govt. buys peace with Seers in Ayodhya
Nritya Gopal Das, Champat Rai to be inducted in Ram Temple Trust
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Feb 10
The Modi government has decided to buy peace with the Seers in Ayodhya who are seething with anger for being dropped of the newly created Ram Temple Trust (Ram Janmabhoomi Teerath Sthan). These seers were kept out of the 15-member Temple Trust when it was announced last week by the government.
The seers who had been fighting for the construction of the Ram Temple since 1949 are bitter that the government had ignored them after the victory in the Supreme Court.
It now transpires that Nritya Gopal Das, the man behind the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the past 50 years, is set to be inducted into the newly created government Ram Temple.
If sources in the Union Home Ministry are to be believed, Nritya Gopal Das will be co-opted by the existing nine trustees when they meet on February 19 in Delhi. The Trust has two vacancies which can be filled by the 9-member trust by co-opting other two members.
One of the reasons for not appointing him directly by the government as a trustee was because of criminal case pending in the CBI court. The BJP leadership had dispatched a senior leader and Ayodhya MLA to explain to the Seer that the trustees would co-opt him as a trustee. The government is also toying with the idea of giving him the task of making him the chairman of the Trust or a Board to be created. But no final decision has been taken.
The proposal is that the Trust will create another Ram Temple Construction Board and the task of constructing the temple may be given to Board to be headed by Nritya Gopal Das.
Nritya Gopal Das is already the chairman of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas which is tasked by the RSS and VHP to construct the Temple. The 60% work for the construction has already been undertaken and now the process will begin in April.
Another name being mentioned for induction into the trust is of Champat Rai, vice president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad who is the moving spirit behind bringing the Seers and RSS-VHP together that created the ferver in the country.
A senior minister in the Narendra Modi government spoke to Nritya Gopal Das last week and assured that he along with VHP leader will be inducted into the trust.
The formal announcement will be made when the first meeting of the trust takes place on February 19. The 15-member trust includes senior lawyer K Parasaran, Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati from Prayagraj, Jagadguru Madvacharya Swami Prasannateerth from Pejawar, Yugpurush Parmanand Maharaj, Swami Govind Dev Giri Maharaj, Vimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra from Ayodhya royal family, Kameshwar Chaupal from Patna etc.
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