The Hindu : VHP to await outcome of BJP national executive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 19, 2003

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VHP to await outcome of BJP national executive

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI July 18. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad would await the outcome of the BJP's national executive to decide its future course of action on Ayodhya, the organisation's general secretary, Pravin Togadia, said today.

Refusing to be drawn into a debate in the event of the BJP refusing to toe the VHP's line of "legislation route" for solving the Ayodhya dispute, he told presspersons here that he would not like to answer hypothetical questions. He repeatedly said, "let us wait".

"Let us see whether they (BJP) stand for their 1989 Palampur resolution, in which they stated that the solution to the dispute could be either through negotiations or legislation. It is up to them to decide," he said.

In support of his organisation's "legislation option", he said that "when the Central Government could bring in a law to overturn the Supreme Court's judgment on the Shah Bano case, why can't they do it for Ayodhya?"

The efforts taken by the former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, and the Kanchi Sankaracharya to settle the problem through negotiations had failed, he said, and added that if Parliament passed a law, the dispute could be solved "peacefully".

Asked why the VHP was insisting on legislation for Ayodhya when it opposed such a move in respect of the Shah Bano case, he said there was a difference. "In the Shah Bano case, the VHP opposed the legislation as accepting the Shariat laws meant accepting Muslim theocracy in secular India. But, in this instance, the question of Ram temple was not a theocratic demand. No court has given any judgment that Ayodhya is not the birthplace of Lord Ram," he said. To a question whether the BJP by not helping the Ram temple movement to make further progress amounted to the party going against Hindus, he said the BJP, being a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance, had abandoned the "Hindutva agenda".

Nevertheless, "as yet, they have not gone against the interests of the Hindu society".

Asked whether the VHP softened its stand on resignation of the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, he replied, "Our demand still stands".

Later, addressing a meeting organised by Vigil, the VHP leader said the Ram temple movement was not merely for raising a temple, but was aimed at "correcting" the "mindset of Muslims" in the country. Sri Viswesha Theertha Swami of the Udipi Pejawar Math, called upon Hindus to unite and strive for the fulfilment of the goal of the Ram temple movement.

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