NEW DELHI, 1 February — Taking no risk in elections to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party categorically washed its hands off the Ayodhya issue yesterday at least for some more time. This comes as a big blow for another Hindu extremist party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which recently decided to go ahead with the temple’s construction on the site of the demolished Babri Mosque in Ayodhya after March 12.
Addressing a press conference, BJP President Jana Krishnamurthy warned the VHP of "legal consequences" if it did not accept the court verdict on the Ayodhya issue. He said: "I am not bothered about whether VHP would abide by the court verdict and if it does not accept the verdict, the legal consequences would follow."
"When you are in government, naturally there are certain restrictions on you," Krishnamurthy told reporters. "And one of the biggest restrictions on our party is our NDA (National Democratic Alliance coalition) agenda ... this NDA government is there till 2004... The Ram (deity) mandir (temple) is not on the agenda of the BJP till 2004. Whether it will again come back then depends on the circumstances, conditions."
The promise to build a temple on the site of a mosque in Ayodhya in northern India was a key plank of the BJP’s platform as it rode an aggressive Hindu revivalist movement from obscurity in the 1980s to political center stage. The BJP has come under pressure over the issue ahead of an important state poll in two weeks, with the VHP, vowing to defy court orders banning any activity on the disputed plot and ignore government pleas to wait for a peaceful solution.
With eyes on UP polls, BJP-stalwarts do not want the Congress to exercise the Ayodhya issue as an electoral whip against BJP during its campaign. Not surprisingly, the BJP has reacted strongly to certain VHP leaders’ comments who said that they are ready to "sacrifice the government" for constructing the temple.
"The VHP is not a partner in the NDA government. How can they sacrifice a government of which they are not partners?" asked senior BJP leader and Union Minister M. Venkatiah Naidu in Madras on Wednesday. The Feb. 14 election in Uttar Pradesh will be an important test of the BJP’s popularity.
