BJP to wait for court verdict on Ayodhya

NEW DELHI: A day after the Kanchi Shankaracharya''s proposals on Ayodhya were rejected by All India Mulsim Personal Law Board, the BJP''s official view was that the door on negotiations remained open and that talks were still continuing at different levels among the persons concerned.
But unofficially, senior party leaders admitted that there was little likelihood of any early resumption of talks and that it was unlikely that any effort for a negotiated settlement will be made before the coming assembly polls in four states.Both the government and the party are inclined to await the court''s verdict, they said.
The party itself will discuss its future strategy on this issue and the VHP''s continuing personalised attacks against PM Vajpayee at its three-day national executive meeting to be held in Raipur from July 18.
BJP sources said that while discussing the mandir issue at last month''s chintan baithak in Mumbai, it was decided that the party and the government should not get involved in the Shankaracharya''s negotiations which should be projected as an independent initiative.
It was also felt that Ayodhya should not be made the centrepiece of its electoral strategy if the BJP wishes to go in for pre-poll alliances in the next Lok Sabha election. "The dominant view was in favour of pre-poll alliances," disclosed a senior BJP leader.
The party, it was stated, will now look at this issue afresh in the light of the rejection of Shankaracharya''s proposals and the worsening relations between the BJP and the VHP on the government''s handling of the Ram Temple issue.
The VHP''s ongoing offensive against the PM and the periodic calls for his resignation have angered and embarrassed the party, which feels that this is damaging the government''s image.
While one section in the party believes the VHP''s outbursts should be ignored, there is now a growing view that some decisive steps have to be taken to contain the VHP.
"We have a serious inhouse problem at hand...we can explain our stand on the Ram Temple to the public, but how do we explain such public attacks? The government is losing face," said a BJP leader.
The BJP''s dilemma is that it does not know how to tackle the VHP''s aggressive and hardline leaders. It has, so far, refrained from taking on the VHP as its cadres do have a degree of influence on the ground.
"The VHP and the RSS cadres may not help us win elections but they can certainly ensure our defeat," admitted another senior BJP leader.
Instead, the BJP has constantly told the VHP that it fully supports its demand for a Ram Temple but expressed its inability to pass a legislation in Parliament as it does not have the numbers to do so.
The BJP has, therefore, been depending on the RSS to rein in the VHP''s leaders, who were peeved at being left out of the Shankaracharya''s initiative. Though the RSS has distanced itself from the VHP''s personalised attacks against the PM, it has failed to contain the VHP.
In fact, the RSS has also passed a resolution at its Kanyakumari meet that there was no compromise on its demand for the construction of temples at Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura.