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PM briefed on Ayodhya

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 2. Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the Central Government's plea on the Ayodhya matter, a high-level meeting was convened today by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at his residence. Apparently, a detailed brief on where the Government stood was presented to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Cabinet Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, who were present.

Among the others who attended were the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, and the Solicitor-General, Kirit Rawal. The Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, did not attend the meeting as he is not appearing in the matter.

Official sources were tight-lipped about the confabulations that lasted for about an hour. After the mess that was created last year at the time of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's `shila poojan' event in Ayodhya, the Government wants to exercise maximum caution this time although it is the Government which has approached the Supreme Court for an early hearing.

Last year, in an interim judgment, the court disallowed the `shila poojan' or any other religious activity or any other activity on all of the 67 acres of Government acquired land in and around the disputed site. Now, the Government would like the court to lift the stay on these activities, at least on what it describes as the "undisputed'' portion of the acquired land.

The BJP leaders have virtually announced their not-so-hidden agenda of handing over of a large part of the land to the VHP-led Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas to allow them to start construction of a Ram temple even though the verdict in the main title suit is yet to come.

The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing the Government's plea on March 6 and during the course of its judgment it could give a final view on the status of the acquired land.

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