Shiv Sena links BJP’s Ram temple fund drive to 2024 Lok Sabha polls

Mumbai, Dec 21: The Shiv Sena on Monday alleged that the mass contact initiative to collect funds from the public for the Ram temple construction in Ayodhya is akin to "canvassing" for the 2024 general elections in the name of Lord Ram.

The BJP, however, dismissed the charge, saying it is not a political issue for the party, and accused the Shiv Sena of laying roadblocks earlier in the 'bhoomi pujan' of Ram temple construction and now by creating hurdles in the donation initiative "in which people are participating voluntarily".

An editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said it was never decided that the grand temple will be constructed through public donations, and political campaigning in the name of Lord Ram has to be stopped at some point of time. "But the issue of public donations is not simple. It is political," it alleged.

Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust's general secretary Champat Rai last week said the trust is going to start a mass contact and contribution campaign across the country for the construction of the temple.

The temple will be built using domestic funds collected from the general public through the mass contact programme as the trust doesn't have required approvals for accepting donations from abroad, Rai had said.

The Marathi daily, without naming any party or organisation, said, "The temple, basically, is not being built for political gains of a political party, but for unfurling the pennants of Hindu pride of the country."

It claimed four lakh volunteers will implement the contact initiative.

"This mass contact programme is campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the name of Lord Ram. The political campaigning of Lord Ram's name has to be stopped at some point in time. But it cannot be seen (as happening)," it said.

The editorial asked who the volunteers (for the mass contact drive) exactly are and sought clarity about their parent organisation.

It said hundreds of "kar sevaks shed their blood and made sacrifices" during the temple construction campaign, and asked whether it should be built seeking donations.

"It will be an insult of each soul that shed blood for the temple (construction purpose) if the volunteers are going to campaign for a political party in the name of seeking donations," the Shiv Sena said.

"The fight for the temple was not political, but an outbreak of Hindu emotions," it added.

VHP leader Ashok Singhal, Vinay Katiyar and others had camped in Ayodhya during the early days of the temple construction campaign, it noted.

BJP veteran L K Advani launched Rath Yatra taking the campaign across the country, while "hammers came down" on the tomb of Babri Mosque through the inspiration of Shiv Sena's founder late Bal Thackeray, the editorial said.

"This is the history. But today Ayodhya's Ram temple is becoming a subject of ownership rights, it alleged.

Reacting to the editorial, BJP MLA and former Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar said, "Why are they afraid? Why is Sanjay Raut (executive editor of Saamana) publicly laying the foundation of their defeat in the 2024 polls?"

"For the BJP, it (temple construction) was not a political issue and is not a political issue," he asserted.

Shelar accused the Shiv Sena of taking "Ram virodhi (anti-Ram)" positions by earlier laying roadblocks in the 'bhoomi pujan' of Ram temple construction and now by creating hurdles in the donation initiative "in which common people are participating voluntarily".

He noted the "battles and sacrifices" made during the temple campaign by the RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP, and leaders like Ashok Singhal, Uma Bharati and others.

"Those who only politically intruded into the campaign felt a stomachache at the time of Ram temple construction 'bhoomi pujan' and now the 'Ram (temple construction) donation" is rankling their eyes," he alleged.

The BJP leader also asked where do those "who run the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as per the will of contractors" have the habit of making donations through their own pockets.

The BMC, which the richest civic body in the country, is ruled by the Shiv Sena.

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Israeli forces invade southwestern Syria, set up checkpoint in Quneitra

News Network

November 24,2025

Israeli forces have pushed over the Syrian frontier, erecting a checkpoint and stopping vehicles in the southwestern city of Quneitra, in yet another breach of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The violation took place on Sunday, when the troops made their way across the border, setting up the outpost near the Ain al-Bayda junction in northern Quneitra, Syrian outlets reported.

According to the al-Ikhbariya paper, an Israeli detachment positioned itself at the junction, halting cars and conducting searches.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three Israeli military vehicles then moved further into the northern countryside, deploying between the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the villages of Ofaniya and Ain al-Bayda. The agency added that a separate Israeli unit mounted a new incursion in the central region, approaching the villages of Umm Batina and al-Ajraf.

Residents said such activities have surged in recent months, pointing to Israeli advances onto farmland, leveling of extensive forested areas, arrests, and spread of mobile checkpoints.

The Israeli regime began markedly increasing its military aggression against Syria last year.

The escalation coincided with increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout the country by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad had confined to northwestern Syria. The HTS, however, managed to overthrow the government as the Israeli attacks would pummel the country’s civilian and defensive infrastructure.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has, meanwhile, been fraternizing the HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani amid the widely reported prospect of rapprochement with Tel Aviv.

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