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Help restrain VHP, BJP tells RSS

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI FEB. 13. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party want the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to take the initiative to prevent the vitiating of the atmosphere through statements by Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders. The statements could adversely affect the Government's petition before the Supreme Court asking for a vacation of the stay on religious and other activities on the government-acquired land in Ayodhya.

This view was conveyed to the RSS at a meeting this morning between BJP and RSS leaders at the latter's Jhandewalan office here. The RSS was represented by its general secretary `sarkaryawah', Mohan Bhagwat, the joint general secretary `sah sarkaryawah', Madan Das Devi, and the joint spokesperson, Ram Madhav. The BJP group comprised the president, Venkaiah Naidu, and five general secretaries — Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh, Sanjay Joshi, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Anita Arya.

The meeting, which lasted over an hour, was a sequel to a meeting three months ago between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, his Deputy, L.K. Advani, and the RSS chief `sarsanghchalak', K.S. Sudershan. Another meeting is expected to follow soon, with the main agenda being better coordination in view of key Assembly elections this year and the Lok Sabha poll next year.

Party leaders later said that a mechanism for better coordination between the two and other wings of the RSS was also discussed. Organisational issues — the RSS regularly `loans' its `pracharaks' to the BJP for political work — also came up.

The meeting is considered important because next month, the RSS is scheduled to hold its critical `pratinidhi sabha' at Nagpur where the entire Sangh Parivar is represented and important decisions are taken on the RSS stance on key policy issues.

After today's meeting, Mr. Ram Madhav said: "BJP leaders felt that at present, the atmosphere is conducive for the Ayodhya issue. The Government has appealed to the Supreme Court and if a favourable decision comes, the Government can move forward. But statements from the VHP at this juncture can spoil the atmosphere. In this context, the BJP leaders wanted the RSS to take the initiative (to stop VHP leaders like Pravin Togadia from making unnecessary statements)."

On Wednesday, the Human Resources Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, had directly conveyed this view to the VHP leaders, Ashok Singhal and Acharya Giriraj Kishore, following which Acharya Kishore made it clear that the VHP's current demand did not include the disputed land in the Ayodhya case relating to the title suit in the Allahabad High Court. That was in contrast to the aggressive stance adopted by Mr. Togadia on Tuesday. But besides Ayodhya, at this juncture the BJP wants the full cooperation of the RSS and its many affiliates to get the maximum help and benefit at the hustings. Already, there are indications that the Centre was now thinking of bringing in legislation to ban cow slaughter throughout the country, a demand made by the RSS and the VHP.

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