VHP plans to install Ram idols in 2.75 lakh villages

VHP leaders have asked their cadres to visit the 2.75 lakh villages that had contributed bricks for the Ram temple movements and ask its residents to install an idol of Lord Ram in their households as a mark of their contribution towards the temple.

Lucknow: In a bid to revive the fervour over the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will visit the 2.75 lakh villages that had contributed bricks for the temple during the height of Ram temple movement in the nineties.

VHP leaders have asked their cadres to go back to these villages and ask its residents to install an idol of Lord Ram in their households as a mark of their contribution towards the temple.

VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said: "The exercise is scheduled to begin from March 25 (which happens to the New Year as per the Hindu calendar) and continue till Ram Navami on April 8."

The VHP's move comes less than two months after the Supreme Court gave the disputed site in Ayodhya for construction of Ram temple while directing the Centre to form a trust for the purpose.

According to the VHP leader, the period of the movement would be observed as a "Ramotsav", which would be celebrated on a grand scale this time. Our cadres will fan out in 2.75 lakh villages and reach out to every Hindu household, which had once contributed a brick and Re 1.25 at the peak of the Ram temple movement."

Bansal said the temple is associated with faith of scores of Hindus and should thus be constructed with donations. "We expect to generate funds from the public once again like we did in 1989," he said.

He said that the VHP will organise functions in small and big temples, while helping the poor and needy at the same time.