Author: Our Special Correspondent
Publication: The Hindu
Date: May 30, 2003
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/05/30/stories/2003053004750100.htm
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is not
at all pleased with the assertion of the Bharatiya Janata Party president,
Venkaiah Naidu, in Rampur on Wednesday that his party would be prepared
to allow a mosque to come up next to a Ram temple at the disputed site
in Ayodhya for a peaceful resolution of the issue.
And it is even less happy with what
it described as the effort towards achieving peace with Pakistan "at any
cost" even when insurgency continued and innocent people lost their lives
daily.
The VHP has long held the view that
no mosque can be allowed within a circumference of "panch kos" around the
temple complex.
Reacting angrily to Mr. Naidu's
statement, the VHP senior leader, Giriraj Kishore, said today that all
the "sants" associated with the Ayodhya movement had made it clear that
they were not in favour of any mosque coming up within the "panch kosi
parikrama" of the temple.
"We do not want any mosque up to
7 or 8 km from the temple," Acharya Kishore said.
This was also necessary to prevent
frequent and repeated clashes between those coming to offer prayers at
the temple and those offering `namaz' at the mosque, he added. "A temple
and mosque side-by-side would be an invitation to trouble and repeated
`jhagra' (dispute) between the two communities.''
The VHP leader hinted that the BJP
had made the statement out of the compulsion of electoral politics "to
appease" the Muslims of Rampur and that Mr. Naidu was carried away by the
presence of Muslims at the Rampur rally although the BJP knew that it would
not get their votes.
Anyhow, the VHP and the `sants'
involved in the Ayodhya issue would never agree to such a proposal.
Acharya Kishore was equally contemptuous
of the peace moves of the Vajpayee Government.
"Yeh desh ka apmaan hai (this is
an insult to the country)" that militants continued to kill innocent Indians
and the leaders talk of peace.
This kind of peace will not be tolerated
by anyone here, he added.
