June 27, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 26,1424

NEW DELHI, June 26: Radical Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Wednesday threatened to hold nationwide protests if India’s ruling BJP party does not allow a temple to be built on the site of the Babri mosque.

The group’s vice-president, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, renewed the call for legislation to hand over the site in Ayodhya.

“Since BJP members got elected on the Ram Temple issue, they should tender their resignation if the legislation (for the construction of temple) fails in parliament,” Kishore said in Raipur, according to the Press Trust India.

Mr Kishore said 125 MPs from various parties had signed a paper favouring the construction of the temple and added that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee should also endorse the move by putting his signature.

An awareness campaign would be launched on July 10 to give the movement fresh momentum, he said.

Archaeologists are currently working on the site to determine whether a temple had previously stood on the site of the Babri mosque, which was built in the 16th century. It was torn down by militant Hindus in 1992.

Radical Hindus claim Ayodhya is the birthplace of the warrior god Ram.—AFP