A man who turned a temple's dream into a mass movement — Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh honoured Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ashok Singhal on his birth anniversary on Sunday, September 27, 2026, calling him a 'mahaan sanaatan purush' (great scion of the Sanatana tradition) and a pioneering force behind the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

In his post, Minister Singh wrote: 'On the birth anniversary of Shri Ashok Singhal ji — forerunner of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement and a great Sanatana figure — I bow to him with a hundred salutations and offer humble tribute. His sacrifice, penance, and incomparable contribution in transforming the resolve to build the Shri Ram Temple into a people's movement will forever remain unforgettable. His entire life, dedicated to the service of nation and dharma, is a source of inspiration for all of us.'

Who was Ashok Singhal — and why his name still echoes in Ayodhya

Ashok Singhal served as a senior leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and was the most prominent organisational face of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi agitation — the decades-long campaign demanding a temple at Ayodhya, the city revered as Lord Rama's birthplace. He channelled the movement's energy far beyond temple committees and into mass mobilisation, helping make the Ayodhya question one of the defining political and cultural flashpoints of late-20th-century India.

The Ram Mandir, consecrated in Ayodhya in January 2024, is widely regarded as the culmination of the decades-long campaign Singhal helped build. For BJP leaders, commemorating his birth anniversary is both a mark of personal reverence and a reaffirmation of the ideological arc that connects the agitation to the temple's eventual construction.

BJP's tradition of honouring the movement's architects

Tributes to figures of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement — from ministers, chief ministers, and party functionaries — are a recurring feature of the BJP's commemorative calendar. Giriraj Singh, a senior party leader and Lok Sabha MP from Begusarai, Bihar, has been among the most vocal voices on questions of cultural nationalism, making his tribute to Singhal consistent with his public positioning.

Singhal's legacy, as invoked today, sits at the intersection of religious devotion and political mobilisation — a combination the BJP has long argued is inseparable from India's civilisational story. On a quiet Sunday morning, the Minister's post is a reminder that the movement's memory is actively tended, not merely archived.