The Hindu : How the VHP was brought around

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 16, 2002

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How the VHP was brought around
By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, MARCH 15. While the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, took care to congratulate the Uttar Pradesh Governor for ``competent handling'' of the situation in Ayodhya today, his own aides praised his ``patience and perseverance'' in the face of calculated provocation from various quarters.

The ``peaceful'' denouement at Ayodhya today, according to sources, now provides the right backdrop for resumption of dialogue. It is being suggested that in the coming weeks, a few well-meaning individuals may be involved in making the two communities sit across the table.

The process of dialogue is seen as parallel and supplementary to the legal process; the thinking is that whatever the final Supreme Court verdict, the decision would still have to be ``sold'' politically to both the communities.

For now, two elements are being cited as central to the Prime Minister's approach: a complete adherence to the Supreme Court directions and avoidance, as far as possible, of any confrontation and bloodshed in Ayodhya.

There is a sense of satisfaction that Mr. Vajpayee's approach of a judicious mix of these two elements has paid off, despite pressure from his own senior ministerial colleagues, who would have preferred a greater accommodation for the VHP leaders than was legally feasible.

It is also being argued that if ``March 15'' passed off peacefully, it was because the Prime Minister was ``firm, fair and frank'' in his interaction with both the Hindu and the Muslim leaders in recent weeks.

Interestingly enough, Mr. Vajpayee avoided speaking to the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas leader, Ramchandradas Paramhans, whose ``suicide'' threat last evening sent the Government into a nervous overdrive.

The Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, was reported to have brought the intractable Paramhans around late last night, after he had rebuffed the Defence Minister, George Fernandes.

However, much of the detailed negotiations were handled in Ayodhya by Vinay Katyar, the BJP MP (who reportedly took part in the talks as the ``representative of the Union Home Minister); by Navneet Sehgal, a former district magistrate in Faizabad, who also is reported to be a confidant of the former Uttar Pradesh Minister, Lalji Tandon (who, in turn, has a reputation of being the Prime Minister's confidant);and, by Harbajan Singh, an IPS officer who had earlier served as an SP in the district.

Still, in the morning it did appear that the VHP could once again start acting up, and a tough message had to be sent out; the VHP vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore and two other BJP MPs were arrested in Lucknow on way to Ayodhya.

In fact, it is learnt that there were plans to arrest the VHP ``working president'' Ashok Singhal on the night of March 12 on his arrival in Lucknow.

The idea was just to tell the VHP leadership that the Centre was serious about Mr. Advani's February 27 statement, in which the Home Minister had threatened to take coercive measures against the VHP leaders should they defy the law.

On arrival in Lucknow, Mr. Singhal was whisked away to the Raj Bhavan, where the Governor is believed to have done some plain-speaking.

The bully's bluff was, in effect, called. The overall tactics towards ``March 15'' were predicated on a reading that the VHP was neither prepared nor willing for any ``agitation'' or ``movement''. Only after an assessment that the VHP leadership had fully capitulated was an accommodation made on its demand for a central officer to receive the ``shila daan''.

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