The Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a Member of Rajya Sabha currently, Subramanian Swamy is known for not mincing his words.
Even though Swamy did not attend the ground-breaking ceremony in Ayodhya on Wednesday, he has been a vocal advocate of the Ram Mandir. But the interesting part, however, is that his stance on the temple has been changed multiple times.
Just before the ceremony on Wednesday, he had said that the Prime Minister had no contribution to the movement. Instead, he credited Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao. He said,
“We did all the arguments and debates for the temple. The government did nothing that can be called a factor towards the Supreme Court’s decision favoring the construction of the temple.”
It was Swamy who filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court in 2016 seeking direction to allow the construction of the temple. In 2019, he invoked the fundamental right to worship and urged the Supreme Court to list his plea. However, this was not his stance throughout the years.
The Other Side
A twitter user shared a snapshot of an article in the old newspaper that showed a different stance of Swamy. In that article, Swamy had suggested the government to declare that the Babri Masjid would be rebuilt and handed over to the Muslims and a Ram Mandir to be built nearby for Hindus. He also asked Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh governments to be dismissed as they aided the demolition by sending karsevaks to Ayodhya.
However, the authenticity of the post is yet in question, Swamy has always dodged every conversation against the favor of the temple. In 2017, when people advocated for a hospital instead of a temple, he suggested building a hospital 10kms away from the temple for the mentally ill. In 2019, soon after the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced, he wrote,
“The entire 67.703 acres belongs to Union Government. When the Supreme Court decides the cases compensation will be given to winners. But not land. Meantime construction can begin.”
Once the verdict was out and the trust was formed to build the Ram Temple, Swamy again voiced a controversial opinion. He asked non-Hindus to be included in the trust as well.
Source: Free Press Journal
