The Hindu : It's a black mark, says PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 03, 2002

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It's a black mark, says PM
By Our Special Correspondent

A Hindu family looking out of its burnt home in a Muslim-dominated area in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Many people were scared to leave their homes because of the curfew and continuing violence in the streets. - AP

NEW DELHI, MARCH 2. Appealing for calm in Gujarat and the rest of the country, the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, today described the violence in the State as a ``black mark on the nation's forehead'' and conceded that the senseless massacre of women and children had ``lowered India's prestige in the world''.

In a televised address, Mr. Vajpayee invoked the joint appeal issued by the all-party meeting on Friday and expressed the hope that the country would come through the current crisis. The Prime Minister, however, neither patted nor indicted the Gujarat Government for its handling of the post-Godhra situation.

Later, Mr. Vajpayee consulted the Sangh Parivar leaders on how best to avoid a confrontation with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on the Ayodhya issue. He and his Ministerial and party colleagues - L.K. Advani, Jana Krishnamurthi and Kushabhau Thakre - held talks with the RSS leaders, Madandas Devi and H.V. Seshadri.

Mr. Vajpayee had enlisted the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to mediate between the Government and the recalcitrant VHP. After the confabulations at the Prime Minister's residence, Mr. Devi announced that ``religious leaders'' would meet Mr. Vajpayee and or Mr. Advani and expressed the hope that a solution could be round the corner.

It is believed that the Ramjanmabhoomi Trust leader, Mahant Paramhans, is likely to be here tomorrow, but the Mahant is reported to be reluctant to travel to the Prime Minister's residence. Though the RSS leaders are confident of a ``solution'', they feel that the onus is on the Government to make an offer the `sants' could accept.

VHP demarche to Govt.

Notwithstanding the RSS optimism, Mr. Vajpayee's efforts to make the VHP see reason appear to have run into trouble. Even though a VHP spokesman expressed concern of sorts over the unending violence in Gujarat, what he had to say about the Ayodhya imbroglio brought no cheer to the Government. The spokesman, Veereshwar Dwivedi, issued a kind of demarche to the Government, making three demands: first, that the VHP be allowed to carry out its March 15 programme; second, that the Government return within three months the 43 acres of land acquired by it at Ayodhya to the VHP; and third, that all the restrictions on the movement of `kar sevaks' in Ayodhya be removed. For good measure, the spokesman wanted a written undertaking from the Prime Minister and only then could the organisation consider his appeal for ``suspending'' its ``movement''.

Similarly, the Prime Minister received mixed comfort from the RSS chief, K.C. Sudarshan. In a statement from Bhatinda, Mr. Sudarshan said that the senseless violence should stop because Pakistan-inspired elements were ``trying to destroy our national unity''. He appealed to Muslims not to ``tolerate people who indulge in such heinous activities in the name of Islam''.

Curbs on `kar sevaks' criticised

If this plea for sanity did provide some comfort to the Prime minister, the RSS chief nonetheless warned that the Governments - Central or in the States - had no business curbing the citizens' democratic right to travel to Ayodhya. Restrictions imposed on the `kar sevaks' were an affront to the ``Hindu sentiments'' and the Government was duty-bound to provide security to all those who wanted to make a pilgrimage to a holy place, he said.

This part of the statement is being explained as part of the RSS leadership's effort to humour the VHP.

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