The Hindu : Sonia for status quo in Ayodhya

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 19, 2003

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Sonia for status quo in Ayodhya

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 18. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today spoke out in favour of maintaining the status quo at Ayodhya. She said all concerned should wait for, and respect, the Supreme Court verdict.

Addressing a general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Ms. Gandhi referred to the Supreme Court judgment delivered in 1994, which had forbidden the handing over of any part of the 67 acres of acquired land to any party before the settlement of the title deed.

She expressed the hope that "all attempts to misinterpret the judgment will eventually be frustrated".

Ms. Gandhi once again drew a distinction between the Congress definition of Hinduism and the manner in which it was being misused by some people to spread hate. The Congress opposed fundamentalism, obscurantism and bigotry of all kinds.

"Our adversaries, on the other hand, distort the basic value of religion," she said.

She cautioned her party MPs about the "designs" of the BJP and the need to combat it. "Let us be under no illusion, the BJP and its allied organisations will stoop to any level, spread any falsehood to achieve their goals," she claimed.

Ms. Gandhi dwelt on a variety of issues ranging from the economy, the expectations from the budget, the JPC report on the UTI and stock market scams as well as the grave situation in Iraq and the escalating tension between India and Pakistan. She blamed the UTI and the share market scams on the Centre. "The scams occurred because the NDA Government was intent on creating a `bogus feel-good factor' in the stock market to compensate for its poor performance." The Government "deliberately looked the other way as brokers, banks, corporate entities and the UTI took advantage of the loopholes".

"It is poor governance that is the root cause of both the scams and all through the 18 months that the scams were played out, that is from the last quarter of 1999 to the first quarter of 2001, the NDA was in office," she said.

She expressed the hope that the budget would help revive the economy and the investment momentum. The Government should expand the rural infrastructure.

She also spoke out against a war on Iraq and urged the Government to take an active part in the diplomatic efforts to defuse the current situation. Deploring attempts to weaken the United Nations, she said: "Whatever action has to be taken must flow out of a explicit and clear U.N. mandate."

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