Forty years after a historic assembly in 1984 set the Ram temple movement on its organised course, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari stood in Nagpur on 14 November 2026 to remember the man who made that assembly possible — Ashok Singhal, former international president of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), whose birth centenary year is being marked across the country.

The 1984 Dharm Sansad and Singhal's organising vision

The centrepiece of Saturday's 'Shri Ram Katha' programme was a reckoning with history. CM Fadnavis recalled how Singhal convened the 1984 Dharm Sansad — a parliament of saints and religious heads drawn from diverse Hindu traditions — and secured a formal resolution to construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya. Bringing together figures from competing sects and schools of thought under a single platform, Fadnavis said, was 'a great challenge' that Singhal met through sheer force of leadership.

The Chief Minister credited Singhal with giving the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation both organisational shape and a clear direction — transforming what had been a localised religious aspiration into a nationwide movement. 'रामजन्मभूमी आंदोलनाला संघटित स्वरूप आणि निश्चित दिशा देण्याचे काम त्यांनी केले' ['He gave the Ram Janmabhoomi movement an organised form and a definite direction'], Fadnavis said, addressing the gathering.

From agitation to Ayodhya's consecrated temple

Fadnavis drew a direct line from Singhal's decades of mobilisation to the moment on 22 January 2024 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram Temple at Ayodhya — the culmination of a campaign that spanned four decades and multiple legal and political battles. 'His leadership and struggle were pivotal in the journey from directing the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to the realisation of the grand temple at Ayodhya,' the Chief Minister said.

Fadnavis also offered a personal note: he counted it among his 'fortunes' to have participated in the Ram temple movement and to have seen Singhal and Sadhvi Ritambhara — the Padma Bhushan-honoured religious leader present at the Nagpur event — in person. It was a rare moment of biographical candour from a sitting Chief Minister at a public commemoration.

Unity across sects — Singhal's enduring idea

Beyond the temple, Fadnavis highlighted what he described as Singhal's deeper philosophical contribution: the insistence that diversity of sect, thought, and worship practice within Hindu society must never harden into division. 'There can be many sects, thoughts, opinions, and modes of worship in Hindu society; but there must be no discrimination — the feeling of unity must endure,' Fadnavis quoted as Singhal's core message.

The event was also attended by State Minister Adv. Ashish Jaiswal, MLA Kirtikumar (Bunty) Bhangadia, and Padma Bhushan Didi Maa Sadhvi Ritambhara, among other dignitaries — a cross-section of political and religious Maharashtra gathered in Nagpur, the city that has long been a nerve centre of the VHP's organisational network.

With the Ayodhya temple now standing and Singhal's centenary providing a fresh occasion for reflection, the BJP governments of Maharashtra are ensuring that the movement's architects remain woven into public memory — not just as historical figures, but as living reference points for a political and cultural project still very much in motion.