The Hindu : VHP lashes out at Govt. for `betraying' temple movement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003

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VHP lashes out at Govt. for `betraying' temple movement

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JUNE 16. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today castigated the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's effort towards resolving the Ayodhya issue.

In a strongly-worded attack, bordering on being abusive, the top VHP leadership — Ashok Singhal, Praveen Togadia and Giriraj Kishore — charged the government leaders with "using the Kanchi Sankaracharya as a tool'' in their political game, of "betraying the Ram Janmabhoomi movement which had catapulted them into power'', of "appeasing Muslim leadership'' and, finally, of trying to "bargain on matters of Hindu pride''.

It seems that the VHP leaders are especially angry that the Government is trying to work out some "formula'' that would sideline the VHP. When a pointed question was asked about this, Mr. Singhal said "we will tell you about this later''.

Mr. Togadia made one thing clear — under no circumstances would the VHP and "Hindus'' give up their claim on Kashi and Mathura, in addition to Ayodhya. "We can negotiate with the Muslims and talk to them, but we will not bargain away Kashi and Mathura ... we cannot tolerate hurting `atma gaurav' (the pride of the Hindu soul),'' Mr. Togadia said. Mr. Singhal charged that the Prime Minister had kept the Sankaracharya "in the dark'' that he was being "used as a tool'' and all that the BJP leaders were interested in was to "somehow build a Ram temple and win the next elections on this and stay in power.''

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, was also not spared. Mr. Singhal repeated his earlier allegation that Ramchandra Paramhans, the leading `sadhu' in the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, had suffered a heart attack after Mr. Advani said certain things to him during their meeting some 15 days ago. "I cannot tell you what Mr. Advani said as the Paramhans is in the intensive care unit in hospital ... when he is out he himself will tell you,'' Mr. Singhal said. `Hindus' were not pressing their claim to 30,000 temples allegedly destroyed under the Mughal rule or the 3,000 temples allegedly destroyed on which mosques were built, they were asking for the return of only three temples where mosques had been built — in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, and there could be no bargaining on this, the VHP leaders said.

Mr. Singhal said the Ayodhya "formula'' being dished out was like "serving halwa-puri in a commode'' which "not even dogs would eat''. The burden of the VHP song was that the BJP came to power on votes gathered on the Ayodhya issue, it should bring legislation in Parliament handing the land for building a temple, and if that did not go through, they should resign and ask the people to give them a clear majority. That would be the honourable thing to do.

Mr. Togadia spelt out what he called the "appeasement of Muslims'' — for giving up the claim on the Ayodhya land, the Government was prepared to open about 1,000 mosques protected by the Archaeological Survey of India to regular `namaaz', it had recently included some Muslim groups in the backward castes list and could offer nine per cent reservation for Muslims, it was ready to sacrifice Kashi and Mathura, it had agreed to give financial help to `madrassas' and finally, it was ready "to please'' the Muslim leadership. On the last point, the hint was that the Government was trying to "bribe select Muslim leaders".

"Lein dein ki charcha chala rahi hai sarkar'' (hard bargaining is taking place in the talks on Ayodhya), Mr. Singhal alleged, and the VHP was against this. Finally, the VHP leaders said that if Muslims gave up their claim to the Ayodhya land without bargaining, "Hindus'' would shower unlimited love on them, but "if a Mahabharat (civil war) has to take place, who can stop it''.

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