The Hindu : Advani hopeful of Ayodhya solution soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 01, 2004

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National

Advani hopeful of Ayodhya solution soon

By Manas Dasgupta

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, during the `Bharat Uday Yatra' at Viramgam in Gujarat on Wednesday. - PTI

SURENDRANAGAR (GUJARAT), MARCH 31. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today expressed the confidence that a Ram temple would be constructed in Ayodhya ``without any acrimony and with the consent of all'' after the elections.

Talking to mediapersons here on the second day of the second leg of his ``Bharat Uday Yatra'' which started from Porbandar on Tuesday, Mr. Advani said the Government was not in favour of constructing a temple either through a Parliamentary resolution as suggested earlier or leaving the issue to the court of law, as any of the decision might not be ``enduring''.

Mr. Advani said the Muslim leaders and organisations had been taken into confidence and he was hopeful that an agreement would be reached between the two communities soon.

He refuted a suggestion that he was playing a ``balancing act'' during the yatra by adopting different postures in the Hindu and the Muslim-dominated areas. ``I am not balancing anything,'' he said and added that he and his party had remained consistent on the need for social harmony between all communities.

Mr. Advani said he had talked about Ram temple during the first leg of his yatra through Kerala. The issue had not been raised in Gujarat to influence the Hindu votes. ``The BJP wants both the communities to live in social harmony and cordiality,'' he said. About the party's vision document he said it was yet another confirmation of the BJP's claim of it being a ``party with difference.'' The BJP was ``neither a prisoner of dogma nor [do] we look at politics as expediency.'' The BJP had always been ``a thinking party'' and reoriented its stand on various issues based on the changing situations.

The BJP was a ``India First'' party. The interests of the nation take precedence over any other factor for the party. ``We have principles, values and commitment and politics is only an aspect of nation-building.''

The six-year rule by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and now the vision document proved that the BJP was quick to realise that a vast country such as India required co-operation from all and taking the people into confidence.

Mr. Advani disagreed that the stand taken on Article 370 marked any shift in the party's stand. The Article had been mentioned as a temporary provision in the Constitution and it was also not part of the NDA manifesto. In the event of the BJP-led coalition coming back to power, the Government would be committed to implement the NDA manifesto and not the vision document.

Starting from Surendranagar after a night halt, Mr. Advani's yatra passed through Viramgam, Bahucharaji, Modhera, Chanasma, Patan, Sidhpur, Kheralu, Idar and Himmatnagar touching Dhandhuka, Mehsana, Patan and Sabarkantha constituencies. He continued to draw impressive crowds. The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, was given big applause for his attack on the Congress. He held the Congress responsible for ``maligning Gujarat.''

Mr. Advani, however, attacked the Congress in a milder tone, mainly limiting his criticism to non-performance of the Congress governments in the first 45 years after Independence and the ``difference'' the country was witnessing in the last six years of Vajpayee administration. He even expressed an apprehension about the future of democracy in the country ``fearing'' that the way the tide was turning against the Congress, it might even soon disappear from the political horizon of the country. The birth of the BJP had given the country a ``bi-polar'' political system and if the Congress disappeared, the country might go back to the level of uni-polar system with the BJP at the Centre. ``It will not be good for democracy,'' he said adding that the Congress was being rejected by the people all over.

He was ``aghast'' at the ``boasting'' by its president, Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Advani also warned his own partymen against developing larger-than-life images. ``Some of the MPs start thinking that they are greater than the vice-chancellors of universities. Such ideas should never creep into your mind,'' he said.

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