Speaker rejects motion on Ayodhya

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 20. The Speaker, Mr. G.M.C. Balayogi, today rejected the Opposition-sponsored adjournment motion on the Ayodhya issue in the Lok Sabha today, while ruling that the issue was ``not appropriate'' for ``adjourning the entire business of the House'' even as he suggested that the House could decide on a time for a discussion on the subject later.

In fact, later, the BACs of the two Houses met separately, deciding that the Rajya Sabha will take up the issue through a calling attention motion tomorrow, while in the Lok Sabha it will be taken up for a simple discussion under rule 193 (without voting) on Monday, November 26.

The Lok Sabha will take up issues related to farmers tomorrow, another matter identified by the Opposition as a priority issue for this session.

Today's adjournment motion was jointly-sponsored by several Opposition leaders - Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Mr. Somnath Chatterji (CPI-M), Mr. Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi (Congress) and Mr. G.M. Banatwala (Muslim League) included.

Even as the pros and cons of taking up the adjournment motion were being discussed in the House, Mr. Banatwala wanted to know if the Government was thinking of banning the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal (some of their leaders have publicly stated they would defy court orders to start building a temple at the disputed spot after March 12).

The Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, made it clear that there was no question of banning the organisations - an earlier attempt to ban them by a Congress government was not upheld by the statutory tribunal.

When the issue does come up in Parliament it is expected to lead to some heated arguments - the Opposition is getting ready to slam the RSS-affiliated VHP for defying court orders to make a forced entry into the sanctum sanctorum of the makeshift Ram temple at the disputed site and for announcing its readiness to defy the Supreme Court, if necessary, and start building on the site on which status quo has to be maintained under orders from the court.

With an eye on the polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is also prepared for some fireworks. The party spokesperson, Mr. V.K. Malhotra, today said Muslims had defied the Archaeological Survey of India's orders to offer `namaaz' at some protected monuments like the mosque at the Humayun Tomb and Purana Qila (though he admitted later that this practice was allowed by their former minister, Mr. Sikander Bakht).

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