Ram Rath Yatra by Advani went beyond the mere structure..

As the day for the Pran Pratishtha at Ayodhya Ram Janma Bhoomi temple nears, Ashok Chowgule, Vice President Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bharat, pens a brief note on his thoughts about the Ram Rath Yatra 1990 the vision behind it and its impact on, what he aptly calls as, the resurgence of a new Bharat. His words..

By Ashok Chowgule

The proximate cause of the Yatra was to counter the cynical use of caste (through the adoption of the Mandal Commission Report) by the then Prime Minister, V P Singh to keep himself in power. This was in August 1990. Perhaps it was not the intention of Singh, but it was quite obvious, that it would split the Hindu society in a disastrous way. Because for the first time, the issue seen as not so much as benefitting a section of the community but seriously hurting the poor in another section.

Already, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi andolan was moving at a natural pace towards the primary objective of uniting Hindus as Hindus. With a clear threat of dividing the Hindus in caste categories, there was now a need to take the andolan forward in a more aggressive way. The yatra achieved the twin results – arrest the pace of dividing the Hindus and work towards the recovery of the holy Hindu site of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi.

Looking at the yatra in the narrow prism of the mandir, does grave injustice to the yatra and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi andolan. The mandir at the Janmabhoomi is not a structure but a guide to national resurgence and Ram Rajya.