NEW DELHI, Dec 13 — The Congress today described Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as a “lameduck” Prime Minister, saying he had lost the moral right to remain in office after he made public his stand on the disputed shrine at Ayodhya.

Initiating a discussion under Rule 184, which requires voting, the Opposition also demanded the resignation of three Cabinet ministers — Mr L.K. Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Ms Uma Bharti — for their alleged role in the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

The government in its response said the Opposition was attempting to revive communal tension in the country by raking the eight-year-old issue and added the demand for resignation of three chargesheeted ministers amounted to “interference” in the Prime Minister’s constitutional prerogative.

Terming as “politically motivated” the demand for resignation of the three ministers, the Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, said the motion under Rule 184 entailing voting was “untenable” as it sought to discuss individual culpability in violation of sub judice rule.

Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, who was fielded by the Congress to initiate the censure motion seeking the resignation of the three Cabinet ministers and to disapprove the stand of the Prime Minister seeking to exonerate them, said Mr Vajpayee stood ‘unmasked’.

The Prime Minister’s statement that the movement for Ram Temple at Ayodhya was an expression of “nationalist feeling” was not a “slip of tongue but a slip of mask”, the former Union Minister said in a sharp and caustic remark on the BJP and the Prime Minister.

Mr Somnath Chatterjee of the CPM said the Prime Minister was adopting double standards and pointed out that Mr Vajpayee had earlier sought the resignations of Mr Buta Singh and Mr Harin Pathak from the Council of Ministers when they were charged by the CBI in criminal cases. He also criticised the Congress for its then Government’s decision to open the mosque in 1986.

The Samajwadi Party supremo, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, said his party was for constructing the proposed Ram Temple and the mosque side by side at the disputed site.

Blaming the Congress for unlocking the disputed structure at Ayodhya, Mr Mulayam Singh said the BJP-led Government was in power because of the wrong-doings and policies of the Congress.

The discussion under Rule 184 was decided by consensus at a meeting of leaders of parties yesterday and ended eight days of impasse in the Lower House of Parliament. The Prime Minister was present when Mr Reddy spoke while the three Cabinet Ministers who were being discussed left before the discussion began. The Congress was asked to initiate the debate on the basis of a ballot of several motions filed by members.

Mr Reddy, who was at his sarcastic best during the debate, said newspaper editorials all over the country had condemned the Prime Minister for his stand on Ayodhya. “Now that the Prime Minister has mounted the chauvinist Hindutva tiger, he will land up inside the tiger”, the Congress member said. Mr Vajpayee has completed his pilgrimage from “hypocrisy to theocracy”, he added.

The former spokesman of the United Front Government paid barbed compliments to the three Ministers, saying Mr Advani could defend a “medieval” ideology in modern terms, while Dr Joshi confused history with mythology. For Ms Uma Bharti, he said she was a restless soul who shifted from minority to monastery and ‘kamandal’ to Mandal.

Saying that there was grave impropriety in the continuance of the three Ministers in the Vajpayee Cabinet, Mr Reddy pointed to the example of Mr Harin Pathak, who had been made to resign recently.

Mr Reddy said the “monumental misdeed” of demolishing the Babri masjid had created a schism in the psyche of the people and the nation.

While the Prime Minister has regretted the incident, he had not condemned it at any point, he added.

Quoting from the CBI charge sheet, Mr Reddy said Mr Advani was involved in the criminal conspiracy hatched in BJP MP Vinay Katiyar’s house in Ayodhya, a day before the demolition took place.

In view of the charge sheet and the sessions court, Lucknow, orders, the three Ministers had no right to continue in office, he said.

Mr Reddy was interrupted on several occasions by the ruling side, particularly Mr Katiyar and Shiv Sena MPs.

They contended that the matter was sub judice and could not be discussed in the House. Another BJP member wanted to know how the Congress motion was different from what was earlier disallowed by the Speaker.

According to the CBI, Mr Advani had gone on a hurricane tour before the demolition to whip up sentiments and mobilise lakhs of kar sevaks. Mr Reddy said Mr Advani had also advised the then Uttar Pardesh Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh, not to resign till the mosque was brought down.

Mr Reddy also pointed out that recently when the CBI raided a prominent industrial house, the Home Minister had clarified on the CBI’s behalf. This showed that the investigating agency was under Mr Advani’s control, he added.

Saying that Lord Ram was omnipresent, Mr Reddy said Mr Advani and company wanted to pin the deity to 2.75 acres of disputed land.

He said while the Lord was considered as a “maryada Purushottam”, there was no “maryada” in Mr Advani sticking to the Home Ministry.

The Congress member said that when he gave the motion, he thought he would catch a big fish. Instead, he said that he had caught a whale — the Prime Minister.

Mr Vajpayee, he said, had remained neutral during the Ayodhya crisis by refusing to associate himself with the demolition. Quoting the golden words of philosopher Dante, Mr Reddy said, “The hottest place in hell is reserved for those neutral in a moral crisis”.