The Hindu : BJP to consider VHP demand for `legislation'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 13, 2003

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BJP to consider VHP demand for `legislation'

By Our New Delhi Bureau

New Delhi July 12. Leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today extracted a promise from government leaders that the Bharatiya Janata Party, at its national executive next week, would consider the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's demand that a "mandir legislation" be introduced in Parliament.

This was stated by Madan Das Devi, senior RSS functionary, after a conclave at the Prime Minister's residence. The meeting was attended by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, and the RSS chief, K.S. Sudershan.

Mr. Devi said the RSS would, in turn, be telling the VHP leaders to stop demanding Mr. Vajpayee's resignation. "There was no room for demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of a democratically-elected government."

Today's meeting took place in the context of the growing rhetorical stridency of the VHP against the Vajpayee Government, especially after the collapse of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswati's initiative to bring about an amicable solution to the Ayodhya/Babri masjid dispute.

Mr. Devi also told the media that the RSS leadership had conveyed to the Government the VHP's concerns and expectations.

Attack scaled down

As if to prepare the ground for today's meeting, the VHP had earlier in the day toned down its attack on the Vajpayee Government for "failing" to secure the disputed site of Ayodhya "for Hindus". Nevertheless, it persisted with its demand for legislation on the Ramjanmabhoomi; maintaining that there would be no going back on its claim to this and the mosques in Kashi and Mathura.

"Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura are non-negotiable as we have already given up our claim to the 3,000 temples which were demolished to build masjids. Muslims must give up their claim to these three sites for improving relations with the Hindus," the international working president of the VHP, Ashok Singhal, said here at the end of the two-day meeting of the Ram Mandir Nirman Andolan Samiti.

The VHP was one with the RSS on this, he insisted after reading out the resolution drawn up at the meeting, which was attended by the RSS leadership.

But even on Ayodhya the VHP desisted from sounding an ultimatum to the Government; confining itself primarily to stating that if the BJP-led NDA dispensation was unable to pass legislation for handing over the disputed site to Hindus, then it should seek a new mandate to do so.

In the resolution, the `sants' — without naming the Kanchi seer, Sri Jayendra Saraswati — were critical of the recent efforts to negotiate with the Muslim community on Ayodhya and were particularly resentful of being left out of the process. Also, they rejected the talk of "giving up" the claim to the disputed structures in Mathura and Kashi to secure the Ramjanmabhoomi.

Reluctant to field questions on its earlier tough stance, Mr. Singhal diverted all questions to the convener of the Samiti, Mahant Parmanand; maintaining that the VHP was only following the direction provided by the `sants'.

According to Mahant Parmanand, the `sants' will meet in mid-September again to decide the course of action. As to whether the `sants' would set a deadline, he was non-committal.

To repeated questions on whether the `sants' had faith in Mr. Vajpayee's ability to deliver vis-a-vis Ayodhya, he said: "He has our trust as of now; if he fails, he will be answerable."

About his earlier demand for Mr. Vajpayee's resignation should the Government fail to legislate on Ayodhya, Mr. Singhal sought to blame the media for "misinterpreting" his remarks. "All I did was remind the BJP of its Palampur resolution wherein the party had favoured a legislation to hand over the site in Ayodhya to the Hindus. And, if the BJP fails to do so, then it should seek a mandate from the electorate to realise a goal it had committed itself to."

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