Dehradun (Uttarakhand): President of Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP) Pravin Togadia on Monday demanded that 'Bharat Ratna', the country's highest civilian honour, should be bestowed upon Ashok Singhal, Mahant Avaidyanath, Ramchandra Param Ghosh, Shiv Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray and BJP leader late Kalyan Singh, who made vital contribution to the Ram Mandir movement.
"All these people dedicated their lives to the Ram Mandir movement. Giving them Bharat Ratna will prove that the BJP has respect towards the leadership, which was instrumental in building the grand Ram temple," 67-year-old Pravin Togadia said here.
According to Togadia, a grand Ram temple has been built in Ayodhya, Utta Pradesh with the money of eight crore Hindus. "About one lakh saints played an important role in this (movement). Hindus struggled for five hundred years for (the creation) of the Ram temple," added the AHP chief.
Meanwhile, Togadia congratulated the Uttarakhand government on the issue of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). He said that Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has shown courage to end the tradition of two laws based on religion in the country.
Togadia also justified the idea of keeping tribals free from the UCC. "Tribals should get rights based on tradition, whereas it is not appropriate to give them (rights) based on religion," he said and expressed optimism that now Uniform Civil Code law will be implemented in the entire country.
The opposition is repeatedly calling the implementation of UCC an issue of the Central government. Quizzed about it, Togadia claimed the Uniform Civil Code law was in force in Goa since the time of Portuguese rule. "In such a situation, it is not right to say that this is a Centre's issue," he quipped.
