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Treading dangerous ground
IT WOULD SEEM that the Vajpayee Government has bought time on the demand of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its `sant parivar' — that a big chunk of the Government-acquired land in the disputed Ayodhya complex be handed over to them — by offering to have its "legal and Constitutional issues" considered by the Law Ministry. But there is very little in the articulations of the pro-temple leaders at the rally marking the culmination of what was provocatively called the `sant chetavani yatra' to suggest, even remotely, that they are in a mood to resile from their much-vaunted `temple-at-any-cost' stance or their `resolve' to go ahead with the construction any time after March 12, even if it entails taking possession of the land by force. In the immediate context, of course, the development means that, while appearing to avert a `showdown', the BJP-led Government and the VHP have ensured that the Ram temple remains centre stage during the crucial Assembly polls now under way in Uttar Pradesh. Although for the record the BJP leadership has maintained, at least thus far, that Ayodhya will not be a poll issue, the Centre's response is tinged with electoral overtones — that of retaining its traditional vote base in the majority community.
There can absolutely be no quarrel about the Government's move to examine ways of expediting the judicial process in the pending title suit concerning the disputed site in Ayodhya. The initiative, which should in fact have come much earlier, makes a lot of sense, given that a national consensus of sorts has emerged across the main political spectrum in favour of the judicial route as a practicable way out of the Ayodhya tangle, not reckoning of course the idealistic negotiations route. But its response to the VHP's other plea — of `land handover' — is open to serious question. For all the seeming reasonableness of the argument that the title suit related only to the site where the Babri Masjid had stood and that therefore there could be no bar on the Government parting with the rest of the land it had acquired in 1993, it deserved to be rejected outright for the simple reason that it was only the thin end of the wedge which the VHP and its associates have planned to drive. Their game plan — and they have left no one in doubt about it — is to build structures as per the temple design on the so-called `undisputed' portions of land in the complex and present a fait accompli which would be difficult for the Government to ignore and would possibly have the effect of forcing the hands of the Judiciary. The very objective of the Supreme Court vesting the Centre with the functions of a `statutory receiver', implying a duty to maintain the status quo pending court decision in the suit, is evidently to preempt such devious designs. Given this context, the Vajpayee regime's response has amounted to giving credence to the VHP's demand and, in a way, has rendered itself vulnerable to the charge of encouraging the VHP in its communally provocative ways.
On a different plane, Mr. Vajpayee would have to do a lot of explaining to his partners in the ruling coalition because the palpably soft line the Government took at its interaction with the sants-VHP delegation ran counter to the dominant mood of the National Democratic Alliance leaders whom the Prime Minister had consulted earlier. He was expected to take a tough line on the `land handover' issue, reiterate the Government's `court verdict or negotiated settlement' stand and make it clear that there was no question of altering the status quo or allowing anyone to disturb it. Perhaps Mr. Vajpayee was acting under pressure from within his own party or the RSS elements when he deviated from the NDA-agreed line. But the acid test is yet to come and in stages — that will be when the VHP pushes ahead with its remaining crucial elements of the temple construction project slated to commence anytime after March 12.
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