Sadhvi Rithambara, a key figure in the Ram Temple movement and convenor of Durga Vahini, is among the thousands of people who are celebrating the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya. Like many others, memories of the days of struggle have come alive for her.
“My mission was to continue motivating people and not get arrested,” says the saffron-clad Sadhvi, as tears well up in her eyes.
There were clear instructions from my guru and mentor not to get arrested any cost. “My responsibility lay outside the prison and not behind the bars,” she recalled.
“I used to give a slip to the police and escape. My task was to motivate people wherever possible. Once I had to jump a wall and walk long distance to reach Ponta Sahib to avoid arrest,” the 60-year-old Sadhvi told The Sunday Guardian.
The fire-brand speaker of the Ram Temple movement is elated that the consecration ceremony marks a big step towards the realization of the dream of building a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya. What makes the event more special and memorable is that her rakhi-brother, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to see the ceremony through. “It is due to special luck that he has been chosen by destiny that the Temple movement is reaching its high point under Modiji.”
“He is special. It is public’s blessing and his devotion towards them that his efforts are now resulting in the Pran Pratistha and completing the unfinished tasks,” she said.
“I think it is the result of good deeds of previous life, blessings of forefathers and God’s own wish and the ability to deliver on promises that makes such a person the right candidate to perform such a ritual,” she said.
Former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and deputy PM L.K. Advani also played a pivotal role in taking forward the Ram Temple agenda, she said, narrating the sacrifices of yesteryears.
Recalling the testing times of the early days of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, she said there was an occasion when she had thought that she wouldn’t emerge alive from police custody.
“Once I was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh state government of Digvijaya Singh, I was taken around Indore and through the forests for almost the entire day. I was taken to Gwalior jail and put in a barrack of 70 people without my medicines and asthma inhaler.
“I wasn’t presented before a magistrate for four days and they wanted to break my will power and I had gone on hunger strike. I did not know what was going on outside the jail. I was made to alight from a train that was stopped about 25 km before Bhopal station and made to cover the distance on foot. I thought that would be my last day in the service of Maa Bharti,” said Sadhvi Rithambara.
As convenor of Durga Vahini, the Sadhvi is credited with organizing 50,000 women supporters to march to Ayodhya. “There used to be discussions that the young generation would not join the movement but during my campaign I encouraged thousands of youngsters to join the movement,” she said.