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Joshi talks tough with VHP
SC to hear plea on Ayodhya on Feb 21

New Delhi, February 12
The Supreme Court will take up for consideration on February 21, the Centre’s plea seeking vacation of its order banning any kind of religious activity in the 77 acres of land in Ayodhya acquired by the government after the demolition of the disputed structure in 1992.

In another development, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, who is acting as the link between the Government and the VHP on the Ayodhya issue, today asked the VHP leaders to guard against “statements which are not in the interest of the present initiative and which widen the area of conflict.”

Amidst stepped-up rhetoric of the VHP leader, Mr Praveen Togadia, on the Ayodhya and Iraq issues, the government fielded its mediator with the Sangh Parivar, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who spoke to top leaders urging to avoid statements that would vitiate the government’s initiative and widen the area of conflict.

Simultaneously, the VHP also sought to do damage-control by distancing itself from the remarks of Togadia on the two issues.

Sources in the Sangh Parivar said the VHP had been asked by the RSS not to take “extreme” positions on issues especially Ayodhya. VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore’s statements today came reportedly at the intervention of the RSS.

Regarding the Centre’s plea, sources said it would come up for hearing a day ahead of the Dharam Sansad organised by the VHP to chalk out plans for temple construction if the government failed to hand over the undisputed land to the parishad.

The Centre had moved the court on February 4 within hours of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee meeting Kanchi Shankaracharya who had last year played a crucial role in the Ayodhya issue by holding negotiations with the parties involved in the dispute.

The government application sought vacation of the apex court’s March 13, 2002 order, by which on the eve of the controversial “shiladaan” ceremony organised by the VHP, the court had banned any “kind of religious activity, including “shiladaan”, on the acquired undisputed land.

Seeking an early hearing of a petition filed by Mohammad Aslam alias Bhure on which the Supreme Court had passed the interim stay order, the government said as peace prevailed in the area, the ban order could be lifted. PTI