The Hindu : 'Bill on Ayodhya only after consensus'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 04, 2003

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National

'Bill on Ayodhya only after consensus'

By Our Staff Reporter

VELLORE Aug. 3. The Centre will introduce a bill in Parliament on the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya only if there is an all-party consensus on the issue, the Union Minister for Home Affairs, Swami Chinmayanand, said here today.

He said there were three solutions to the Ayodhya issue. One of them was a solution through court, secondly through legislation in Parliament, and, thirdly an amicable settlement arrived at through mutual talks between the disputant parties. Of these, the BJP favoured a solution through talks, which was most effective.

The National Democratic Alliance Government would bring a bill in Parliament on the construction of the Ram temple only if an all-party consensus was reached.

Reiterating that the NDA Government and the BJP would always respect the court verdict, he said the Government had been requesting the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court to expedite the cases pertaining to the Ayodhya temple and the Babri Masjid demolition, and help resolve the tangle soon.

On the move to introduce a Common Civil Code for the entire country, Swami Chinmayanand said the Centre would introduce it only if there was consensus among all segments of the NDA.

Asserting that such a code was the current need of the country, he said the Supreme Court had directed the Centre for its early formulation, which, he said, was "necessary for all of us to think and proceed together".

Asked about the Opposition's allegation that the CBI had withdrawn the charge sheets filed against the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, in the Babri Masjid demolition case, he said that it was an independent agency, which was doing its job.

Asserting that the Central Government did not come in the way of the CBI, he chided the Opposition for their "double- standards" in demanding a CBI enquiry for each and everything — welcoming its findings if they were favourable to them, but speaking ill of it whenever the course of an investigation or findings "went against their expectations".

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