Vajpayee said he won’t change stand

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 12: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee does not intend in any way to go back on his recent remarks on Ayodhya which h...

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NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 12: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee does not intend in any way to go back on his recent remarks on Ayodhya which had whipped up the storm in Parliament. He had favoured construction of a temple at the disputed site and the mosque somewhere else. Today at a meeting of the parliamentary party of the BJP, he is believed to have given the assurance that he would stick to his stand.

Three hours before a consensus was hammered out at an all-party meeting called by the Lok Sabha Speaker in his chamber, Vajpayee had told his party MPs to stay put in the capital. He told them that if the Opposition continued to stall the House, Parliament would be adjourned sine die in a couple of days. And before that he intended to table a written statement in the House explaining his position and then address the nation.

The Government faces no threat though the BJP has agreed to a discussion under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha which entails a vote. The NDA has a majority in the Lok Sabha and the PM has already secured from the allies a promise to back the Government in Parliament though they are the ones who are likely to be most embarrassed by a vote in the Lok Sabha. Mamata Bannerji and M.Karunanidhi face assembly elections in three months and Chandrababu Naidu faces local elections in February.

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The resolution passed “unanimously” by the NDA last Sunday had rejected the Opposition’s demand for the resignation of L.K.Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti. Mamata Bannerji and Farooq Abdullah had demurred on the issue and given notes of dissent. But NDA convenor George Fernandes had insisted that rejection of the resignation demand be included in the resolution.

Mamata had also complained to Vajpayee against Uma Bharti, who has asserted that the temple would be built at the disputed site. Advani tried to placate Mamata today by reminding his party MPs at the meeting that the BJP had only one spokesman and that they should remember that.

The fact is that during the past three days the MPs of all parties were beginning to panic over the possibility that there could be an “accident” that may lead to an election. No one had wanted polls in 1997 and in 1999 but the situation had spun out of control. The consensus evolved today offered a face-saver to the Congress.

When the Congress had raised the demand for the ministers’ resignation, Advani’s supporters had blamed Brajesh Mishra, the PM’s principal secretary, for insisting that Harin Pathak resign from the Government after charges were framed against him. There is a section in the BJP which feels that Mishra gave a handle to the Opposition to beat the BJP with.

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As the days wore on and the issue became complicated, the Congress found itself in the position of Abhimanyu who entered the chakravyooh but did not know how to get out of it.

The last seven days have been an exercise in image building both by the Congress, which was firming up its support amongst the minorites, and by the PM, who has reached out to the party’s traditional votebank. The traditional worker of the party and of the RSS, who works for the BJP in elections, is in an upbeat mood.

Vajpayee has also bought peace with the RSS, which has been on a collision course with him over the Government’s functioning. The RSS leadership has reportedly conveyed its satisfaction to Vajpayee and told him that having clarified his stand on Ayodhya, he should not do anything to jeopardise the Government.