Author:
Publication: The Weekend
Observer
Date: September 23,
2000
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) will begin its campaign to install a model of the proposed Ram temple
at the disputed Babri mosque site at Ayodhya even as top leaders of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meet here. next week to discuss how to' widen
the party's base to include Muslims.
The 11-foot-high model
would be brought over from Jaipur, where it is currently being put together.
It would be installed to give Hindu devotees an idea of how the actual
temple, 10 times bigger than the model, would look, VHP vice president
Giriraj Kishore said.
Later in the month, on
October 18-19, senior VHP leaders would meet in Goa to fix a date to begin
actual construction of the temple, he added.
But even as the VHP said
it would construct the Ayodhya temple irrespective of the fact that the
ownership of the site is still disputed and is under judicial review, the
BJP is keen to emphasise there is no merit in sustaining the issue any
more.
"Ayodhya is no longer
an issue because a temple already exists there," BJP vice-president Pyarelal
Khandelwal said, referring to the make-shift, temporary shrine that came
up overnight on December 6, 1992, after Hindu zealots razed the 16th century
Babri mosque earlier that day. Mr Kishore, however, said, "it may not be
an issue for them but it is our main agenda. We are committed to its construction
as we have made a promise to the people."
Both the BJP and the
VHP had teamed up and jointly led the highly charged Ram temple campaign
in the late 1980s. But though the VHP has been steadfast that the temple
must come up in its place, the BJP has moved ahead in politics, leading
a coalition government with partners who do not share the view.
When asked whether it
would be proper for the VHP to begin work since the matter was still under
judicial review, Mr Kishore said, "The court's consent was not sought by
those who demolished the original Ram temple."
He was referring to the
belief that the 16th century Mughal emperor Babur demolished a temple and
built a mosque in its place. No court could give a verdict which "goes
against the people" as the Ram temple's was a "peoples' movement", Mr Kishore
said. "in any case," he added, "Half the rights are established as we are
in possession of the site."
The VHP leader stressed
once again that the VHP's commitment to building a Ram temple in place
of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya was not linked to the fate of the BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
Asked if the VHP stand
was an irritant for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's coalition government
that had already said the Ram temple was not on the government's agenda,
Mr Kishore said, "it is for Vajpayee to resolve the matter."
Admitting that the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad was unhappy with Mr Vajpayee's government, Mr Kishore said,
"They could do much better in every area... Vajpayee is leading a captive
life, caught among his copartners in the National Democratic Alliance."
