NEW DELHI: Lauding former VHP leader Ashok Singhal as an inspiration and hero, home minister Amit Shah Sunday said Singhal believed that India could attain a position of glory only by removing the “stigma of slavery” and constructing a grand Ram temple in its place in Ayodhya.“The essence of his life, his penance, his simplicity and his dedication and endeavour are qualities worthy of emulation by every young person,” Shah said at the inaugural ceremony of the centenary year celebrations to mark his birth anniversary. RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabole was among the Hindutva figures present at the event.
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It was only after PM Narendra Modi took office that govt obstacles were removed and a grand Ram temple was built, Shah said. He said the image of Singhal wiping blood from his face during a police lathicharge ordered by the then UP govt against Ram temple activists should remain etched in the memory of the youth for 100 years.“Ashok ji believed that one should remain committed to Hindutva because the welfare of the entire universe is possible only on the basis of the ideals of Hindutva,” Shah said.Born into a well-off family, Singhal joined RSS and later became the fiery face of the temple movement as a VHP leader. He is credited with expanding the defining Hindutva movement by bringing deprived sections of society, especially sections of Dalits and tribals, under its fold.When a nation and society do not remember their heroes and fail to take their lives and teachings to the youth, an ideological vacuum emerges, Shah said, calling for promotion of Singhal’s life story.