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Indian ‘Day Of Shame” Back In Spotlight
by Giles Hewitt
NEW DELHI (AFP) - An ill-timed remark by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has put the spotlight back on one of post-independence India's darkest days - the 1992 razing of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya.
The destruction of the 16th century mosque by Hindu zealots, who claimed it was built over an ancient temple to the Hindu god Ram, sparked some of the worst sectarian riots since the partition of the sub-continent.
The Hindu-Muslim clashes claimed thousands of lives and left a deep scar in India's secular tissue that has been prevented from healing by the constant picking of hardline pressure groups.
Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist BJP party, and its right-wing Hindu affiliates, have long been associated with the Ayodhya row and the highly controversial campaign to build a new Ram temple on the disputed site.
Although promoting the temple reconstruction drive is official BJP policy, the party leadership has in recent years played down the issue for fear of antagonizing its more secular partners in the coalition government.
However, on the eighth anniversary of the mosque's destruction Wednesday, Vajpayee let his moderate mask slip slightly as he told reporters that the temple campaign was an "unfinished" national task.
The remark provoked an outcry from opposition parties, as well as the BJP's coalition partners.
Vajpayee rejected calls for a retraction, and on Thursday stressed that he had been espousing the policy of his own party, rather than the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition.
In a meeting with coalition leaders the same day, he also clarified that the "unfinished task" he referred to was that of resolving the dispute over the Ayodhya site, rather than the actual building of the temple.
But the damage had been done, and for the fifth day in row, the Indian parliament was adjourned Friday as opposition MPs stormed the well of the house, demanding Vajpayee's resignation.
For the all the prime minister's subsequent clarifications, his remarks have drawn strong criticism from many quarters, including the press.
"It is not so much the implicit defense of the Babri Masjid's demolition that has disturbed allies and supporters of Mr. Vajpayee's 'moderate' line, but the inevitable boost his statement will provide to the ongoing agenda of more extreme [groups]," the Times of India said in an editorial.
The Hindu, a daily newspaper, described the prime minister's remarks as "highly inappropriate" and warned that they could only reinforce the suspicion that the coalition agenda was only a "sanitized cover" for the BJP's more divisive policies.
"The BJP swears it is committed to the NDA agenda, but every now and then the mask slips. The face it reveals is not pretty," the newspaper said.
"Mr. Vajpayee should have thought carefully before endorsing a dubious politically-backed agitation on what is after all a day of shame."
Opposition parties have also been calling for the resignation of three BJP ministers, including Home Minister L.K. Advani, who were present in Ayodhya eight years ago and have been accused of inciting the mosque's destruction.
The Ayodhya dispute dates as far back as 1853 when a Hindu sect, the Nirmohis, laid claim to the mosque structure, contending it stood on the site of a temple razed by the Moghul king Babar.
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