Ahead of Ram temple bhoomi pujan, Sadhvi Rithambara thanks 'brothers who sacrificed lives'

Days before the bhoomi pujan ceremony to mark the beginning of the Ram temple's construction in Ayodhya, Hindutva leader Sadhvi Ritambhara has written an open letter on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan to express her "gratitude towards her lakhs of brothers who sacrificed their lives during the 500 years of struggle" of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Days before the bhoomi pujan ceremony to mark the beginning of the Ram temple's construction in Ayodhya, Hindutva leader Sadhvi Ritambhara has written an open letter on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan to express her "gratitude towards her lakhs of brothers who sacrificed their lives during the 500 years of struggle" of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. "I am reminded of my brothers, with whom I do not have any blood relation but who sacrificed their lives in the Sriram Janmabhoomi Mukti Aandolan. All of them did not meet me, but had promised me in my meetings with their roaring slogans 'laathi-goli khaayenge, mandir wohi banayenge' (we will face sticks and bullets, but build the temple at its place)," Rithambara said in her 'Rakhi Patra'. She has been associated with the Ram temple movement and is one of the many accused persons facing trial for their role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. Ritambhara, the founder of Durga Vahini, the women's wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, also thanked senior lawyer and two-time Attorney General of India K Parasaran, the lead counsel for the Hindu parties in Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute case.

"My elderly brother Parasaran jee gave befitting reply to those in the court who had refused to accept the existence of Lord Ram in His country, to those who sought proof about Him and those who had put question mark over Ayodhya. The Hindus will never be able pay off his debts," she said. On June 29, Ritambhara appeared in the special CBI court hearing the Babri Masjid demolition case in Lucknow, and denied her involvement in the demolition of the mosque and claimed that she was framed.

The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in December 1992 by 'kar sevaks' who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood on the same site. On November 9 last year, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a unanimous verdict backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be allotted for a mosque in the Hindu holy town..

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