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The politics of Ayodhya

ON THE FACE of it, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's formulation that a solution to the vexed Ayodhya dispute lies in depoliticising it and letting the contentious issues be settled amicably by the religious leaders of the Hindu and Muslim communities does make eminent sense. But then, the irony is that the one who is rooting for "freeing" Ayodhya from politics is none other than the patriarch and officially acknowledged No. 1 leader of the very party that is primarily responsible for pushing it into the quagmire of partisan politics. It was the BJP that used the Ram temple issue as a vehicle for political mobilisation and capturing power. For all the image of a `moderate' (in relation to the Sangh Parivar's ideology) that attaches to him, Mr. Vajpayee has never been found wanting, when it came to the crunch, in playing the partisan political game, although he did make it a point to come out, off and on, with statesman-like observations. So frequent has been the switch between contradictory approaches on Ayodhya (and this goes also for several other issues that have a bearing on the BJP's core ideology) by the Prime Minister and other leading lights of the party that one is left with the inescapable impression that they are but a part of a grand strategy to concretise the majoritarian communal agenda. If Mr. Vajpayee is really serious about his `depoliticisation' proposition, he could, for a start, get his own party to remove `construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya' from its agenda, an objective which it has only kept in abeyance to sustain itself in power.

As a general rule, negotiation is undoubtedly the best method of resolving conflicts. But, given the context of the twists and turns the decades-long Ayodhya dispute has taken, not to speak of the national outrage perpetrated by the frenzied mob on December 6, 1992, when it pulled down the Babri Masjid, the very suggestion of it by the protagonists of Hindutva becomes suspect. First of all, in a milieu where the VHP and other forces are relentlessly running their campaign for the building of the temple in open defiance of authority, there can be absolutely no scope for any fair negotiation or display of true give-and-take and the representatives of the Muslim community cannot be expected to be able to negotiate on a level field. Secondly, for the BJP or any of its ideological affiliates, there is invariably a non-negotiable factor, even if not spelt out, whenever they talk of negotiation, and that is: the Ram temple must be built on the site where the mosque had stood, since it is a matter of `faith'. What according to them is open to negotiation are issues that are in the nature of the `price' the Muslim community is willing to settle for. And this clearly is a position that seeks to add insult to the injury caused to the minority community and legitimise the brazen misdeed of revanchist forces.

More fundamentally, there are some disturbing questions about the religious leaders who are supposed to be negotiating on behalf of the two communities. Given the fact that there are any number of spiritual leaders, quite a few of them self-styled, on either side and that the writ of no single religious leader runs through the entire community, be it Hindu or Muslim, the question arises: what sanctity will attach to whatever settlement is reached — if at all — by those who have assumed the role of interlocutors? In the circumstances, the `negotiations' route, despite its undoubted theoretical merits, stands little chance of producing a durable solution and the judicial route being pursued by way of title suits appears to be the best bet, something that has found favour with major political parties.

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