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Indian Prime Minister's Stand On Mosque Row Threatens Country’s Social Fabric
by Abhik Kumar Chanda
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's stand on plans to erect a Hindu temple on the ruins of a razed mosque has further alienated the minority Muslim community and opened political fissures, analysts said Friday.
Although Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led coalition trounced a parliamentary censure motion over the issue Thursday, his multi-party alliance is divided on the controversy and the splits could widen, observers said.
The censure motion sought the sacking of three ministers implicated in the 1992 razing of the Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya by Hindu zealots.
The motion was defeated by 291 votes to 179, with 14 abstentions. The issue is due to be debated Monday in the upper house, where the government is in a minority.
Syed Ahmed Bukhari, head imam of New Delhi's oldest and largest mosque, the Jama Masjid, said Muslims were unhappy the temple campaign had become the focus of discussion, rather than the rebuilding of the Babri mosque.
"It is very sad that everyone is talking about building the temple. The name of the Babri mosque is not on the lips of any political party."
Bukhari renewed an appeal to Vajpayee's coalition partners to withdraw from the alliance in a speech made after Friday's weekly prayers.
"I want to make it clear on behalf of Indian Muslims ... that any attempt to construct a temple at the site of the Babri mosque would be an act which will shatter the unity of the country," he said.
Home Minister L.K. Advani and two other colleagues have been cited by a federal investigation for inciting a Hindu fundamentalist mob to destroy the Babri mosque.
The incident led to nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots in which 2,000 people were killed.
Bukhari said Vajpayee, long touted as the "moderate face" of his Hindu nationalist BJP party, had been exposed with his ambiguous comment that the temple issue was an unfinished "expression of national sentiment."
"His mask has been ripped off, he stands exposed. Every time he speaks about the temple, there is religious violence," he said, pointing to two attacks on Muslim shrines last week.
Vajpayee's party supports the temple construction drive, but has agreed to keep the issue out of the coalition's common agenda.
The prime minister told parliament Thursday that his remarks on the temple campaign had been taken out of context and there was "no question" of deviating from coalition policy.
Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said Vajpayee had made short-term gains by pandering to powerful, hardline Hindu organizations that wield enormous clout over his party.
"But that is the immediate situation," he said, pointing out that two of Vajpayee's allies, with strong secular credentials, had 36 members in parliament.
If they pulled out, the 291-seat coalition government would fall, he said, adding that "the coalition has been put under tremendous strain and this could very easily get much worse."
Meanwhile, one of the Hindu nationalist organizations with close links to Vajpayee's party reiterated its plan to build a grand temple on the site of the demolished mosque.
Giriraj Kishore, general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Forum) said the group would formally announce the date of the temple construction during a major Hindu pilgrimage in January.
Kishore said his group did not feel bound to accept a pending Supreme Court ruling on the future of the disputed Ayodhya site, or to worry about the stability of the government.
"We did not bother about previous governments which fell over the issue, nor is it our responsibility to run the Vajpayee government or worry about its survival ... if the government falls, let it fall," Kishore said.
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