The Hindu : VHP rejects BJP chief's suggestion on mosque

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2003

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VHP rejects BJP chief's suggestion on mosque

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 29. 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.

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