The Hindu : No case for PM to quit, BJP tells VHP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

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No case for PM to quit, BJP tells VHP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4. The Bharatiya Janata Party "does not approve'' of the demand for the Prime Minister's resignation made by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Ashok Singhal, in Thiruvananthapuram, on Thursday.

"The VHP should increase pressure on the leaders of those political parties which do not want a Ram temple at the site of the makeshift temple (where the Babri Masjid stood before 1992),'' the party spokesperson, Prakash Javadekar, said today.

"There is no case and no cause for the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to resign... we do not approve of this demand...,'' Mr. Javadekar added.

The party's view is that it has made its stand clear — it does want a Ram temple at the (disputed) site — and no purpose is being served by the VHP leaders attacking the Prime Minister or the BJP. In Mr. Vajpayee the VHP has got a person sympathetic to their view on Ayodhya and they cannot hope to do better.

Mr. Javadekar said that contrary to what Mr. Singhal had alleged, Mr. Vajpayee had supported the Ram temple movement spearheaded by the BJP. "Vajpayeeji was in Palampur (in 1989) when the party approved the (Ram temple) resolution.''

Party leaders are hopeful that some peace formula for the Sangh Parivar would be worked out at the ongoing RSS working committee meeting in Kanyakumari after which the VHP's criticism may be toned down, just as the earlier strident criticism of Mr. Vajpayee Government's policies emanating from the Swadeshi Jagran Manch had been more or less silenced.

At the same time, there is also the view that the continuing criticism by the VHP leaders is useful for the BJP to help persuade its NDA allies that the party is under pressure from the Sangh Parivar and its organisations.

The party rejected the VHP criticism that it has done nothing to further the cause of the temple issue.

It tried, although unsuccessfully, to get the Supreme Court to allow it to give away the undisputed part of the Central Government-acquired land in Ayodhya. Now, efforts were being made by the Kanchi Sankaracharya to resolve the tangle, and more important was the fact that in the Allahabad High Court the basis for deciding the case had changed after the court allowed excavation in and around the disputed site.

On another issue, Mr. Javadekar said the four-member NDA team led by BJP MP, Kirit Somaiya, which had returned from a fact-finding mission in West Bengal, would apprise the Election Commission of the alleged irregularities committed by the CPI(M) cadre during the recent panchayat polls in the State.

On Thursday, the team briefed the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, on its findings. Next week, its full report will be given to Mr. Advani as well as to the NDA convener, George Fernandes.

"In previous two rural elections in 1993 and 1998, 600 and 1,100 seats were declared uncontested. In 2003, this figure went up to 6,000 seats. Not only that, in more than 15,000 seats, the major Opposition parties, the Trinamool-BJP combine and the Congress, were not allowed to file nominations,'' the team's statement said.

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Singhal demands Vajpayee's resignation

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