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Centre must intervene to resolve Ayodhya issue: Chidambaram

By Our Special Correspondent

MADURAI JULY 6. The Centre should intervene to find an amicable settlement of the Ayodhya issue, as the VHP demand that no mosque should be allowed to be constructed at Ayodhya was fraught with "dangerous implications and complications", said P. Chidambaram, general secretary, Congress Jananayaga Peravai, has said.

Addressing a press meet here today, the former Union Minister said there could be no room for an amicable settlement when temples at Mathura and Kasi were on the VHP agenda.

If the Government failed to arrive at a settlement, the parties to the dispute should abide by court verdict, Mr. Chidambaram said.

The Home Minister, L. K. Advani, did not quit office even after the CBI, which functioned under his Ministry, filed a charge sheet against him in the Ayodhya case. The recent developments only revealed that the Ayodhya issue was not headed for a compromise, Mr. Chidambaram said.

Referring to the strike by Government staff and teachers, Mr. Chidambaram said the mass dismissal of over one lakh employees would become "invalid", as it happened during the 1974 railway strike and the Emergency.

The decision to use police force against the striking staff was "not democratic" and criticised the "midnight arrests" of employees and teachers. The police should realise that they were also government servants and should win the respect and sympathy of the other sections. Disagreeing with the Government stand that the State's financial position was in a bad shape, Mr. Chidambaram said Tamil Nadu was facing "usual deficit", which other States did. If the Government felt that there was a fiscal crisis, nothing prevented it from calling representatives of the employees for talks to explain its position and offer whatever it could. Talks should not mean "a one-stop, one-time ritual" but a sustained effort.

Reiterating his resolve to form a third front, as an alternative to the DMK and the AIADMK, Mr. Chidambaram said his recent meeting with the MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, in prison was part of an effort to rope in all parties. He was confident of forming the third front by 2006 and said the current squabbles in the TNCC would not have any impact on the effort.

The Congress leaders, E. V. K. S. Elangovan, and S. Balakrishnan, would address the Kamaraj birth centenary celebrations organised by the CJP here on July 12, he said.

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