The Shiv Sena has sought that former chief justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi be invited for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya in early August as the judgement on the land title suit was delivered by the apex court in his tenure.
While differences between the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya persist, the Shiv Sena has tried to claim credit for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
“Former SC CJI Ranjan Gogoi is a Rajya Sabha MP, but when he was the CJI, the SC ruled in favour of the Ram Temple,” said an editorial in the Shiv Sena organ Saamna on Wednesday, adding that hence, Gogoi’s name must be included in the list of special invitees for the ceremony. It also referred to him as a “Ram Bhakt.”
The newspaper has Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut as the executive editor and chief minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s wife Rashmi as the editor.
The Sena mouthpiece has also sought that the case regarding the demolition of the Babri Masjid, in which BJP veterans like L.K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi are among the accused, be scrapped by the Narendra Modi-led government. This, the party has claimed, will be a fitting tribute to those “martyred” in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
The editorial added that after the demolition of the mosque in 1992, BJP leaders had tried to shrug off their responsibility, and pass the blame to the Shiv Sena. However, late Shiv Sena supremo had stated that if his Shiv Sainiks were part of the mob of karsevaks which demolished the structure, he was proud of them.
The editorial charged that Babar, the founder of the Mughal empire, had demolished temples in India, including that at Ram’s birthplace. The Shiv Sena said once it was accepted that Babar was a foreign invader and after the Supreme Court’s verdict in the land title suit, the case regarding the conspiracy to demolish the masjid had no substance.