M A I N   N E W S

Joshi plays Ayodhya card again
Lays stress on consensus
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 2
Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi today renewed efforts to regain political space within the BJP using the Ayodhya card.

Talking to The Tribune this evening, hours before his scheduled departure for Paris and London to attend a UNESCO conference, Dr Joshi, however, sought to draw an important distinction. He said he was willing to contribute to finding an amicable solution to the Ram Temple issue through consensus but “I am willing to contribute (to the Ram Janambhoomi issue) only in the capacity of a Union Minister”.

Observers here interpret this statement as a well-crafted strategy aimed at broadening his base within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar while making sure that he does not cross the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ of a Union Minister.

Dr Joshi’s resignation drama, in fact, became useful for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who got an opportunity to rein in Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s camp.

In the course of the 11-day resignation episode, Mr Vajpayee emerged taller over Mr Advani as he played the role of supreme arbiter in Dr Joshi’s charter of complaints against the party set-up and BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu.

The Joshi camp is in an upbeat mood and feels that the HRD minister has won the first round in his scheme of things in projecting a triumverate within the BJP instead of a bipolar leadership which the party has projected in the last two General Election.

Dr Joshi said: “A solution is really a possibility and all efforts should be made in the larger interests of the country”. Elaborating, he said it was necessary to achieve consensus for a solution to the Ayodhya problem for pursuance of the development agenda set by the Prime Minister.

In this context, he remarked: “This is the right time to achieve consensus for a harmonious society and a well-knit social fabric,” he said.

It is an open secret that Dr Joshi was able to claw back to a position of prominence within the party on the strength of the solid support he received from the Vishva Hindu Parishad. Understandably, Dr Joshi soft-pedalled questions on the VHP.

Asked about the VHP’s proposed programme in Ayodhya, Dr Joshi said as an organisation the VHP had a right to express its feelings. “There are emotions involved in the temple issue and an early solution would be better for the Indian society,” he said.

Though it is no secret that the senior BJP leader was sore about being ignored at party meetings to discuss strategy about Ayodhya case, he kept silent on the issue saying “what has gone by has gone by”.

Dr Joshi is scheduled to leave for a weeklong visit to Paris and London later tonight and is to address the 32nd General Assembly of United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) tomorrow in Paris.

After his return from abroad, as the first political function after the withdrawal of his resignation, he will go to Ballia on October 10 to lay the foundation stone of a Model Girls College in memory of Prabhawati, wife of late Socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan.

This function will mark the culmination of a year-long birth centenary celebration of Jaya Parkash Narayan.