The Hindu : CPI(M) to go to EC on Advani raking up temple issue

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Friday, Mar 26, 2004

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CPI(M) to go to EC on Advani raking up temple issue

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today said the party's apprehension that the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, would raise the issue of temple construction came true with the Bharatiya Janata Party leader broaching it as soon as his "Bharath Uday Yatra'' hit the Hindi heartland.

The party said that it was in touch with other secular parties and also planned to raise the issue with the Election Commission if Mr. Advani continued to use religion for the sake of politics. Addressing a press conference, the politburo member, Sitaram Yechury, said that along with the slogan of 1990 with regard to the construction of a Ram temple, the BJP leader spoke of building a `Temple of India' based on Mahatma Gandhi's dream of "Ram Rajya."

He said the BJP's talk of a "Ram Rajya" was nothing but a "despicable attempt'' to usurp the Father of the Nation for its own political ends.

The "Ram Rajya" that Mahatma Gandhi envisaged was something in which all citizens were equal whereas the Hindutva concept was to create a "Hindu Raj," Mr. Yechury said.

Responding to the stand of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that if he did not contest the coming elections, it could lead the country to chaos, the CPI(M) said that while Mr. Vajpayee had the democratic right to have illusions of grandeur, it was unfortunate that he had started believing in the "larger-than-life image his party is building of him."

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