PM talks about Temple hope

Expressing anger and anguish at the beef-eating charges, Vajpayee said, ‘‘I would rather die than eat beef’’, adding that he had no idea where beef could be bought or eaten. Indicating that a legislation banning cow-slaughter across the country was on the cards, he said beef was available at ‘‘only a few places’’ and this too would end soon.

The Prime Minister’s remarks on Ayodhya and cow-slaughter came towards the end of a 40-minute speech in which he talked mostly of his vision for India and Himachal Pradesh. His remarks seemed particularly out of place since the focus of the BJP campaign in Himachal Pradesh has been development, and not Hindutva. All the leaders who addressed the rally before him, including Chief Minister P K Dhumal, had concentrated on the progress made by the state as a result of the BJP government’s initiatives and the Prime Minister’s largesse.

The Prime Minister’s sudden swerve towards Hindutva at the tail-end of the speech was clearly directed at national, not state, politics with the aim of deepening the ideological confusion that has beset the Congress, especially over the cow-slaughter issue. In fact, Vajpayee prefaced his remarks on the subject by referring to the ‘‘dilemma’’ facing the Congress today. He said the party ‘‘does not know where to go, what to do’’ and on the issue of cow-slaughter ‘‘they do not know if they are for it or against it.’’

He then said Congressmen in Madhya Pradesh were running a campaign that he ate beef, and proceeded to decry the abysmal standards of public discourse. In this context, he also made an oblique reference to the mutual mud-slinging that has marked the Himachal Pradesh election campaign and urged all sides not to stoop to such levels.

It was while referring to the Congress’ confusion on cow-slaughter that the Prime Minister brought up the Ayodhya issue. He began his remarks with the question ‘‘Should the temple be built?’’ And when some BJP workers in the audience cried ‘‘Yes, yes,’’ he said with a laugh ‘‘No, I am not asking you, I am asking the Congress.’’ Implying that the Congress was as confused about Ayodhya as it was about cow-slaughter, Vajpayee went on to state that ‘‘we are confident’’ that all the evidence gathered so far would establish the existence of a temple.

The argument that a temple existed prior to the building of the mosque in 1528 AD has been central to the VHP’s campaign for demolition of Babri Masjid and rebuilding of a ‘‘grand Ram temple’’. Though tomorrow’s Supreme Court hearing relates only to the stay imposed on the so-called ‘‘undisputed’’ land, the Prime Minister’s cryptic remarks went much further by referring to the actual disputed site. And the fact that a Special Bench of the High Court is carrying on a day-to-day hearing of the case did not deter the Prime Minister from expressing his confidence that the existence of an original temple would be established.