Ayodhya verdict: BJP thinks nothing has changed on the ground

Jaitley says Babri Masjid case has been on since 1993 and this is not a new situation; Joshi visits Advani’s house, but doesn’t reveal what transpired

RPT:New Delhi: **COMBO** File photo of BJP veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi who were dropped from BJP's Parliamentary Board on Tuesday. Advani and Joshi have been included in the Margdarshak Mandal, a new separate body set up as a guiding group. PTI Photo (PTI8_26_2014_000107B)

The Union government and the BJP were on Wednesday taking stock of the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s orders reviving criminal conspiracy charges against its senior leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, virtually ruled out any move to divest Ms. Bharti of her Cabinet berth. “This case has been on since 1993, and this is not a new situation. It will take its course.”

“If getting charge-sheeted was the rule for removal, then there would be very few Congress Chief Ministers left,” he said.

Ms. Bharti had at a press conference earlier in the day announced her intention to visit Ayodhya on Thursday. However, by the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the BJP’s core group ended by around 6 p.m., she went back on her plans.

Presidential polls

Party sources said the top leadership, including Mr. Modi, was of the view that the court order was just another milestone in the long saga of the case, and not to be made much of.

There was, however, another political consequence of this ruling: its bearing on whether or not Mr. Advani or Mr. Joshi could be considered for the positions of President or Vice-President. The names of the two senior-most leaders have been making the rounds as possible candidates. Mr. Advani said in a TV interview two days ago that his political career was not over. “It does not go down well with me whenever anyone says something like that about me,” he had said.

Asked about the prospects of the presidential post for either of these leaders, Mr. Jaitley dismissed it as “a hypothetical question”. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, lawyer for Ram Lalla Virajman in the title suit of the case, said in Patna that the senior leaders were highly respected by all in the party.

In the evening, Mr. Joshi visited Mr. Advani’s residence, but returned home revealing nothing to the waiting media.