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BJP to keep a safe distance
By Neena Vyas
NEW DELHI, JAN. 21. Unsure about the capacity of the Ram temple issue to sway the Uttar Pradesh voter, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are sending conflicting signals about the ongoing ``chetavani yatra'' organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
While the BJP MPs are free to join the ``yatra'' and no disciplinary action would be taken against them for doing so, the party would keep a safe distance, it was stated today. ``The Ram mandir issue is one of national identity and is a cultural issue, it has been a big issue for us, but never a political issue,'' Maya Singh, general secretary, said today. She added that the ``BJP has never seen the Ram temple as an electoral plank''.
Even as the ``yatra'' left Ayodhya and is now on its way to Delhi, reports suggest that several important ``sants'' have stayed away. These include Ramachandra Paramhans, who was at one time at very centre of VHP sant politics.
With the party's State election manifesto yet to be finalised, it is not certain whether the Ram temple issue will figure in it or not. It seems that the central leadership is not in favour of including it, and there has been more than a hint to that effect from the Prime Minister.
`Final assault'
AYODHYA, JAN. 21. Launching a ``final assault'' in its campaign for the Ram temple construction, the VHP today kicked off a saints' procession from here to Parliament but it was marred by a boycott by the chief of Ram Janam Bhoomi Trust, Mahant Ramachandra Paramhans, who said he would oppose the BJP in the Assembly elections.
The `Sant chetavani yatra' set off in a saffron cavalcade to press the Centre for handing over the land for temple construction in Ayodhya amidst chanting of ``Jai Shri Ram'' and declaration that the temple construction would begin any time around March 12.
Hundreds of sants, including 90 from Nepal, led by Shankaracharya Divyananad Saraswati and VHP international working president, Ashok Singhal, left for Lucknow.
As news of the sulking Paramhans reached the venue, Mr. Singhal stayed back in a bid to persuade him, who is annoyed over the strong security measures in and around the make-shift temple here and also in Ayodhya imposed by the Government.
At the start of the yatra, which reached Lucknow in the evening and is slated to converge in Delhi on January 26, the VHP leader, Praveenbhai Togadia, declared ``the temple will be reconstructed at any date around March 12. We cannot wait beyond a point. Now it will be a fight to the finish''. - PTI
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