NDA swears by secular agenda

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, DEC. 10. The National Democratic Alliance meeting this evening adopted a unanimous resolution reiterating the secular agenda of the Government while ignoring the controversial remarks of the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, made earlier this week on the Ayodhya issue, in which he had stated that the ``Ram temple can be built at the disputed site where a temple already exists, and the Masjid can come up at an alternate site.''

A heated discussion is reported to have taken place at the two- hour meeting at Mr. Vajpayee's residence, with the allies and the BJP leaders wrangling on the wording of the resolution that was finally adopted.

It was the Trinamool Congress leader, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, and the Indian National Lok Dal of Mr. O.P. Chautala, who successfully insisted that the resolution commit itself to the Government maintaining the ``rule of law'' and the ``constitutional duty'' to ``accept and implement'' any decision of the Supreme Court which is seized of the Ayodhya matter.

It was also the allies who insisted that the resolution reiterate the NDA Government's ``unambiguous commitment'' to protecting and promoting secularism, while pointing out that the NDA had ``consciously left out all issues of contentious nature'' (read the Ayodhya dispute, uniform civil code and scrapping of Article 370 in relation to Kashmir).

Mamata's insistence

Apparently, Ms. Banerjee reminded the Prime Minister that she had asked for the meeting to discuss his controversial statements that had sent a ``wrong message'' to the country, although later at a briefing the NDA convener, Mr. George Fernandes, refused to admit this. He insisted that he had called the meeting to discuss the parliamentary impasse over the Congress' insistence on a discussion on the resignations of three Cabinet Ministers chargesheeted in the Babri demolition case.

Asked repeatedly whether the leaders of the allies had demanded an explanation from the Prime Minister, who presided over the meeting, for his remarks which some allies described as ``communal,'' Mr. Fernandes' response, amid loud protest from the media, was that those were the creation of the media.

For status quo

The one-page resolution affirmed commitment to the NDA agenda, and also asserted that ``the status quo must be maintained (at Ayodhya) until the Supreme Court delivers its verdict'' and this ``must be accepted'' by ``all parties to the dispute'' and ``every political party'' which has committed itself to upholding the Constitution. Totally silent on the Prime Minister's remarks made on December 7 and 8, the resolution instead preferred to quote his remarks made immediately after the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, describing the event as ``unfortunate''.

Mr. Pramod Mahajan, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, repeated his earlier offer, that the Government would abide by any decision the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha ``on any motion under any rule'' ``provided the presiding officers of the two Houses of Parliament found them in order and these were under prescribed rules''. This, he clarified, included the subject of resignations of the three Ministers - Mr. L.K.Advani, Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi and Ms. Uma Bharti.

Others present at today's stormy meeting, which ended with a unanimous resolution, were Mr. T.R. Baalu (DMK), Dr. Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Mr. Nitish Kumar (Samata Party) Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan (Janshakti), Mr. Vaiko (MDMK), Mr. Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Mr. Parkash Singh Badal (Akali Dal), and Mr. Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena). From the BJP, the heavyweights, excepting Mr. Advani and Mr. Joshi, were present - Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, Mr. Jaswant Singh, Mr. Yashwant Sinha and Mr. Pramod Mahajan.

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