The Hindu : RSS fully backs VHP on Ayodhya issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 18, 2003

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RSS fully backs VHP on Ayodhya issue

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JUNE 17. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) today made its position clear — no compromise on Ayodhya and no giving up the claims on the Kashi and Mathura mosques. It totally supported the view of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), one of its many offsprings.

Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia, VHP leaders, met the RSS chief, K.S. Sudershan, today to explain their stand and complain that the BJP leaders in the Government were trying to sideline the VHP on the Ayodhya issue and work out a compromise formula behind its back.

After this meeting, the RSS spokesperson, Ram Madhav, confirmed that the mother organisation was supportive of the VHP point of view. There was no question of giving up the demand on Kashi and Mathura and it was not in favour of any Ayodhya arrangement without taking the VHP into confidence. The RSS also opposed opening up for regular `namaaz' mosques protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

At a press conference, the VHP leaders had openly expressed their disapproval of recent Government attempts to work out a solution to Ayodhya. They said the Government was "using the Kanchi Sankaracharya as a tool'' and working out a bargain with select Muslim leaders.

The meeting between the VHP leaders and Mr. Sudershan took place even as the BJP leadership, including the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, are closeted in a `chintan baithak' near Mumbai. The Ayodhya issue is expected to figure there and various options looked at from the point of view of the 2004 Lok Sabha election.

Since the `shila pujan' and `shila daan' fiasco in Ayodhya when the courts did not allow the VHP programme and the Government took firm action, the relations between the VHP leaders and the top brass of the BJP is less than cordial. The VHP leaders have several times publicly attacked the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani.

If the BJP wants the VHP and some other RSS organisations to play a supportive role during the Assembly elections later this year and the Parliamentary elections next year, it will have to do something. "Coordination'' with other RSS organisations is a major subject that is expected to be discussed in detail at the BJP's Mumbai conclave. The recent charges levelled by the VHP against the Government are sure to figure, for this kind of public exchange of words bordering on the abusive between "sister organisations'' of the RSS can hardly help the BJP in the electoral battles that lie ahead.

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