M A I N   N E W S

17 Indians feared drowned

Bratislava, (Slovakia), June 13
The Slovak police suspended their search today for 17 Indians who are believed to have drowned in the Morava River while trying to cross into Czech Republic, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. 

The 17 were presumed to have drowned on Sunday night as part of a group of 20 trying to cross the border river some 60 km north of Bratislava.

In New Delhi, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said the Indian Embassy in Bratislava was in touch with the Slovak authorities and monitoring the situation.

She said two of the rescued claimed to be Indians but no nationality identification documents were found with them. AP, DPA

VP bowed under pressure
Advani deposes before Liberhan panel

New Delhi, June 13
Home Minister L.K. Advani today said the V.P. Singh government’s commitment to the policy of appeasement resulted in the withdrawal of a 1990 ordinance to acquire land around the disputed structure at Ayodhya, which was to be handed over for ‘kar seva’.

The government issued the ordinance on October 19, 1990, to acquire 67 acres of land around the disputed structure but within 24 hours it staged a somersault and withdrew the ordinance, Mr Advani said while deposing before Liberhan Ayodhya Commission.

Terming this kind of an action as unprecedented in independent India, the Home Minister said, “This conduct only confirmed my misgivings about the government that this is a government which is committed to the policy of appeasement, a policy which is not in the interest of anyone and not in the interest of even the minorities.”

He said the government lost an option to solve the problem once for all by withdrawing the notification, which apart from acquiring the land also proposed to make a single-point reference to the Supreme Court to determine whether a temple pre-existed the mosque at the site.

Mr Advani said the ordinance was withdrawn due to opposition of the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) supporters and the threat of the then UP Chief Minister not implementing it. He said the BJP had welcomed the notification.

However, asked whether the notification was also opposed by the VHP, Mr Advani said though the reason behind their opposition would be best answered by the VHP itself he felt the sadhus and sants associated with the Parishad did not like the single-point reference issue.

“The ordinance did not satisfy the VHP, though it seemed satisfactory to the BJP. But what made the government withdraw the ordinance within 24 hours is presumably the opposition voiced by the supporters of the BMAC and, if I am not mistaken, the Shahi Imam of Delhi,” the Home Minister said.

Narrating the sequence of events that led to the issuance of the ordinance, he said just before he was to resume his rath yatra from Dhanbad, the then Prime Minister, Mr V.P. Singh, phoned him on October 18, 1990, and conveyed to him that there was a “ray of hope” to solve the vexed issue and asked him to wait in Delhi till the next day to see the “full light”.

He said even the then West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Jyoti Basu, whose party was supporting the V.P. Singh government, had also phoned him and conveyed similar views.

Mr Advani said the government before deciding to withdraw the ordinance could have contacted the BJP and the RSS to persuade the VHP to fall in line. “All that we came to know, that the ordinance was issued and it was withdrawn. This certainly made many in the country feel that a possible solution is lost,” he said.

Mr Advani described as “unfortunate” the demolition of the structure but also said “we have been unfair to ourselves by describing the Ram temple, where puja was going on by court orders, as a mosque and by that we have earned a bad name in the world”. PTI