Mosque Breakers on Babri domes

By IOL South Asia Correspondent

LUCKNOW, January 10 (IslamOnline) - Ayodhya Temple issue is on the boil again with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council-VHP) setting February 22 as the "deadline" for handing over the government acquired land to its trust to begin the construction of the Ram Temple on the site demolished mosque.

The VHP has also called the Dharam Sansad (religious parliament) of Hindu religious leaders to meet in Delhi the same day to take stock of the Ayodhya issue.

The VHP, at its Pune conclave late last month, had warned the central government of a "confrontation" if it failed to hand over the land to its trust by then.

The firebrand VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, was the most vocal at the Pune session. He thundered: "The BJP leadership under Vajpayee should be prepared to lose the political power to build the Ram Temple and safeguard the sacred interests of millions of Hindus".

VHP leaders at the session asserted that it would fully abide by whatever decision taken by the Hindu religious leaders at its Dharam Sansad.

But the VHP had never kept its promise to the sants (Hindu religious leaders) on the Ayodhya issue during the past one decade. The sants had been demanding the immediate construction of the Ram temple there but the VHP had been postponing it on one pretext or the other which annoyed the sants.

Most of the sants in Ayodhya are now against the VHP because they think that the outfit is playing a political game to help the BJP. The sants in the temple city now want the issue to be decided by the religious leaders of both communities there without any outside interference.

It was, however, for the first time that the VHP leaders had criticized the Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani for "misusing" the temple agenda for his political rise.

The VHP working president, Ashok Singhal, pointed out that the issue had brought maximum electoral benefit to the BJP. Singhal conceded that raking up the issue had adversely affected the Ram Temple cause.

The VHP working president even went to the extent of commenting that the Rath Yatra (chariot rally) taken by Advani had, in fact, damaged the cause of the Temple because other political parties had stopped supporting it.

It is said that many other speakers at the Pune session had alleged that the BJP was not serious in the construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. But seriousness was lacking in the VHP leaders' criticism of the government and Advani on the Ayodhya issue. These criticisms are being dubbed as an eye-wash and for the consumption of the sants who are pressurizing the VHP on the issue.

In fact the raking up of the issue by the VHP now has come in the wake of the Assembly elections in four states of Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya in March 2002 and four more states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Delhi later this year.

The VHP had raked up the Ayodhya issue just before the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh early last year ostensibly to help the BJP. It had planned to do "Shiladaan" (offering consecrated bricks for the proposed Temple) at the disputed site in March last year after it launched a 'poornahooti Yagna' (religious rites).

But the Supreme Court intervened when the kar sewaks (Temple volunteers) attempted 'Shiladaan' at the disputed site and the VHP failed in its attempt to make the issue sensitive enough before the UP elections. S

ignificantly, the VHP virtually slept over the Ayodhya issue till now and it thought of taking it up only when the Assembly elections are due again.

Survey to gather data on the land underneath the disputed site

Meanwhile, a nine-member team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and experts from Tojo International conducted an underground survey at the acquired land in Ayodhya to gather data on the land underneath the disputed site.

The excavations had been undertaken on the directive of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The court, which is hearing the Ayodhya case, had directed the ASI to undertake the excavation to find out whether a temple had ever existed at the disputed site before a mosque was built on it.

The team of experts had brought sophisticated equipment to carry out the excavation work. It had used ground penetrating radar system for this purpose. The team is expected to submit its reports to the court soon.

The survey was, however, vehemently opposed by both the concerned parties, particularly the pro-Temple party, on the ground that the survey would not be a fool-proof method to find the existence of the temple beneath the mosque.

Meanwhile, no progress has been achieved in filing the charge-sheets against LK Advani and others, accused in the Ayodhya demolition case in the Rae Bareli Special Court.

The Supreme Court on November 29 last year had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to revive the trial of these accused, who also included the current federal ministers Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, VHP leader Ashok Singhal and Shiv Sena, leader Bal Thackeray in the Rae Bareli court instead of at the Lucknow special court, which was hearing the case since 1993.

The CBI is yet to separate the two cases lying in the Lucknow court, one against the Sangh leaders, including Advani and others and the other against VHP kar sewaks in general, and file the case against the former in the Rae Bareli court as directed by the apex court.

The Rae Bareli court was set up earlier to hear the case against Advani and others before the case was transferred to the Lucknow court, which was hearing the cases against the kar sewaks in general.

In the meantime, the Uttar Pradesh state government has withdrawn the security provided in the Lucknow special court, which is hearing the Ayodhya demolition case against the top Sangh leaders.

This may be a risk to the security of the precious Ayodhya case documents and records kept there. A lot of government documents on the Babri case have already been stolen when a government official bringing them from Lucknow to Delhi was assaulted and killed on train.