Sri Sri's Mediation Dismissed? Temple In Ayodha A Must, Says RSS Chief

New Delhi: With just days to go before Gujarat votes, Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the RSS, pledged that a temple will be built at the site in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to start its final hearings next month on the site which is claimed by both Hindu and Muslim groups.

"The Ram temple will be constructed at the site of Ram-janmabhoomi and nothing else will be built. It will be constructed and that too in its original form and with the same stones. The time for this has come very close. We have to be very careful and take steps one by one," he said as quoted by news agency IANS.

His remarks are seen as a rebuke to spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has appointed himself as a mediator between Hindu and Muslim groups, who stake claim to the Ayodhya site; he visited the temple town earlier this month as part of his mission.

The RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh is the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP whose leaders have said they will abide by the Supreme Court's decision.

Hindu groups believe that the 16th-century Babri Masjid was built on the spot where Lord Ram was born. In December 1992, thousands of right-wing workers or kar-sewaks tore down the mosque. Deadly communal riots followed in which more than 900 people were killed.

In 2010, the Allahabad High Court accorded a third of the disputed site to Muslims and the rest to Hindus. Both have challenged the decision in the Supreme Court whose judges earlier this year suggested that an out-of-court settlement could be the best way to resolve the conflict.

The Shia Waqf Board, which handles property and other administrative matters for Shia Muslims, has said it is willing to find another location to build a mosque. But the majority of Indian Muslims are Sunnis and their leaders have flatly refused the Shia stand.