'PM remarks, NDA resolution not contradictory'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 11. The Bharatiya Janata Party today defended the Prime Minister's controversial statements on the Ram temple, claiming that ``there was no contradiction'' between ``what he had told the media last week'' and the assertion in the National Democratic Alliance resolution yesterday that ``all parties to the dispute and every political party... must accept the verdict of the Supreme Court.''

The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, at an Iftaar party hosted by his Minister, Mr. Shahnawaz Husain, had reportedly said Hindus and Muslims could discuss and arrive at an agreement to build the temple where it exists (at the disputed site) and a mosque could be built at an alternative site.

At a briefing here, the party spokesperson, Mr. V. K. Malhotra, admitted that till 1998 the BJP had said the Ayodhya dispute could not be resolved by the courts as it was a matter of faith. And, today's stand that the Supreme Court verdict on the issue must be accepted by all was quite different. Even on this, he added a rider saying that till this government's tenure ended the BJP was committed to accept the court verdict, keeping a window open to go back to its old stance.

The Prime Minister had not given a recipe for a way out of the Ayodhya tangle, but had only suggested that ``if there was a consensus'', it could be a solution, the spokesman said.

Asked about the propriety and even the constitutional correctness of the Prime Minister's clean chit to three of his Ministers charged with conspiring to demolish the Babri Masjid in December 1992, Mr. Malhotra admitted that the Government had the powers to withdraw the cases. He, however, did not say why the cases were not withdrawn if the Prime Minister who heads the CBI feels, as he had stated, that the charges brought by the CBI were ``against the established facts''.

The party today said the Congress was ``holding Parliament to ransom'' and was more interested in paralysing Parliament than discussing any issue.``We have repeatedly offered to discuss any subject under any rule of procedure provided the notices given by the opposition are within the framework of parliamentary rules,'' he said. The Prime Minister was also prepared to make a suo motu statement on the issue.

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