The Hindu : PM seeks RSS help

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 01, 2002

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PM seeks RSS help
By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, FEB. 28. The violence spreading from Gujarat today spurred the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to seek the help of the RSS to get the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to withdraw its temple construction plan in Ayodhya.

Although a defiant VHP rejected the Government plea and warned of reprisals (against the minorities) ``throughout the country'' in ``response to Godhra'', the RSS has promised to ``mediate'' between the Government and the VHP to help maintain law and order.

The Prime Minister's residence was the venue of a series of meetings this evening in connection with the rapidly spreading communal fire that was ignited yesterday at Godhra but which is widely seen as having been stoked by the VHP's decision to go ahead with the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya in utter disregard of the law. The Cabinet Committee on Security also met to review the implications of a communal carnage. It decided that the Army be asked to stand by in Gujarat.

And voices of allies across the country - the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, the Trinamool Congress Party chief, Mamata Banerjee - condemned the Gujarat violence but also asked the Prime Minister to immediately put a stop to the VHP's plans. They also thought it was irresponsible on the part of any organisation to stoke communal passions when terrorism was stalking the country.

Three senior RSS leaders met the Prime Minister, the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid met him separately, and late in the evening a Congress delegation, led by the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, impressed upon Mr. Vajpayee the need to take immediate and firm action to stop the provocative VHP plan.

At the end of a 90-minute meeting this evening between Mr. Vajpayee and the three RSS leaders - the general secretary, Mohan Bhagwat, and the joint general secretaries, H.V. Seshadiri and Madan Das Devi - it was announced that the RSS would try and talk to the VHP leaders and the Prime Minister would also make another effort to talk to them as well as the `sants' who had fixed March 15 as the date for starting temple construction.

Mr. Vajpayee impressed upon the RSS the need to call off the VHP agitation and restore peace, explaining his Government's ``obligations'' in this regard. It seems that the RSS leaders virtually justified the VHP's position that the ``undisputed'' Government acquired land in Ayodhya could be handed over to the VHP-controlled trust ``even within the parameters of the Supreme Court judgment, as later the RSS spokesperson, M.G. Vaidya, put it: ``We have advised Mr. Vajpayee to speak to the `sants' to defuse the situation.''

The Gujarat situation was also discussed and the RSS spelt out its priorities.

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