M A I N   N E W S

VHP ultimatum to Centre on Ram temple
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 15
Setting the agenda for the coming elections in the country, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad today served an ultimatum on the Centre that it would launch a countrywide agitation if the government failed to bring in a legislation for Ram temple in Ayodhya by October 15.

“If the government does not convene a special session of Parliament to approve a legislation for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, we would launch our movement from October 15 with a rally in Delhi and a march to Ayodhya from Lucknow on October 17,” VHP leader Mahant Avaidyanath told reporters here.

“We had given time to the government to bring a legislation in Parliament for the construction of the temple. It was decided at today’s meeting (Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal) that if this was not done, we would go ahead with our plan,” Avaidyanath said with VHP Working President Ashok Singhal on his side.

While refusing to react on the VHP’s ultimatum, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said as far as the construction of grand temple in Ayodhya is concerned, there was no difference in the thinking of Sangh Parivar and the BJP.

RSS joint general secretary Mohan Bhagwat reportedly attended the VHP meeting and rallied behind it on the ultimatum issue.

Mr Singhal said the BJP government, if it really desired, could muster the majority support in Parliament on the issue. It urged the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy L.K. Advani to take a lead role in evolving a consensus on a legislation for the temple.

Members of all political parties who are Ram bhakts should “for the sake of Ram” participate in the construction of the temple. “It was not just a question of Ram temple but it was the birthplace of Ram,” he added.

The mahant said even the report of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had said that a temple existed at the site prior to the mosque.

The VHP, which began a two-day crucial meeting of Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal, the outfit’s highest decision-making body, said the movement would be peaceful.

“But if Mr Yadav resorts to any pressure tactics and unfair means like the ordering police firing on kar sevaks in 1992, it will be forced to review the peaceful nature of the movement, Mr Singhal said.

“We would break any prohibitive orders imposed by the state government as our intentions are only to have darshan at the site. This time ‘Ram bhakts’ and not kar sevaks are going to Ayodhya,” Mr Singhal clarified.

Asked why the VHP was not willing to wait till the judicial order in the case, the VHP working president said, the Muslim organisations had earlier stated that they would give up the site if proof of temple was made available. Now that the ASI report had proved that they (Muslims) wanted to prolong the case on legal issues.

“We do not know, how long the case will go on. It has been 18 years since the agitation was launched and some of the Muslim leaders have claimed that they would fight for another 25 years. The patience of Hindus in the country is running out,” he said.

Asked whether the VHP was prepared to hold talks with the BJP-led NDA government on the temple issue, Mr Singhal said, “In the last five years, they have done nothing for the temple issue. They have kept it outside the agenda.

The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh had recently urged the BJP to bridge the gap with the VHP stating that committing to the temple cause would be a good plank to sway the Hindus.

The Gaurav Yatra by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the communal violence in the state helped the BJP to consolidate Hindu votes to gain a massive victory.

The VHP’s nationwide agitation in October comes close to the Assembly poll in five states — Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

And, the winning of confidence vote by the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh was seen as a window of opportunity for the BJP to consolidate its lost vote bank in the state as its alliance with the BSP proved counter productive.

With speculation still rife of an early general elections, the VHP’s nationwide agitation could provide a rallying point for the Sangh Parivar to consolidate its vote bank.