Ram temple: RSS offers help to VHP

AGARTALA, DEC. 10. The All-India general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Dr. Mohanji Bhagawat, today said the RSS was prepared to provide all help to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for constructing a Ram temple at Ayodhya. The RSS, which had earlier supported the VHP stand on the temple, would continue to do so in future, he told newspersons here.

`PM's image tarnished'

In Lucknow, the former Prime Minister, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, today said the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's recent statement on the Ayodhya issue and Ram temple was not in keeping with the dignity of his office.

He told reporters that ``Mr. Vajpayee, by giving statement on Ayodhya, has behaved in a manner which will only lead to communal frenzy in the country. He may have compulsions from his party in giving such a controversial statement but acting on (the advice of) his advisors, he has not done anything good for the country.''

The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Digvijay Singh, said Mr. Vajpayee's statement had tarnished his image as a secular leader.``The statement was a personal setback to Mr. Vajpayee,'' he told reporters in Jabalpur.

``I won't mind such a statement coming from Mr. L. K. Advani or even Mr. Kushabhau Thakre. But Mr. Vajpayee's statement, without weighing the pros and cons, has come as a rude shock,'' Mr. Singh said. The comment was neither in the interest of the country nor himself and he had done great injustice to the nation.

`P.M. of the Hindus'

In Chandigarh, the Akali Dal (Mann) chief, Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann, criticised the Prime Minister for his controversial statements. Addressing a press conference, he described Mr. Vajpayee as the ``Prime Minister of the Hindus.''

``The minorities will have to think of their fate in India if the country's Prime Minister speaks the language of the RSS and suggests ( construction of) temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya,'' he said.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader in the Lok Sabha and former Union Minister, Prof. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, said mid- term polls would become inevitable if Mr. Vajpayee did not withdraw his statement on the Ayodhya issue. Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, he said the BJP had now exposed its hidden agenda and was pushing the country into another bout of political and communal disorder. ``There would be no compromise on the issue till the Prime Minister withdraws his statement and seeks an apology from the people.'' The parliament would not be allowed to function till the matter was resolved. The Speaker, Mr. G. M. C. Balayogi, had convened an all-party meeting tomorrow to end the deadlock on the issue.The Union Minister of State for Home, Mr. I. D. Swami, said there were no differences among the NDA partners over Mr. Vajpayee's statement. The matter was settled at the recent meeting of the NDA allies, he told reporters in Ambala.

- PTI, UNI

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