July 20, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1424

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RAIPUR, July 19: India’s ruling Hindu nationalists on Saturday recommitted themselves to building a temple on the ruins of razed Babri mosque but tried to place the burden for a law over the explosive issue on its allies and the opposition.

The resolution, passed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a meeting here, appears aimed at assuaging both hardliners demanding the construction of the temple in Ayodhya and moderates who do not want to isolate Muslims ahead of elections.

The resolution states the BJP supports the construction of the temple but is unable to pass a law in parliament without the support of the coalition’s allies and the main opposition Congress party.

The statement emphasised that the Ayodhya issue would be best solved through negotiations and expedited court hearings.

In recent weeks, Hindu hardliners have been demanding that the BJP pass a law which will hand over the disputed piece of land claimed by both Hindus and Muslims.

The dispute centres around the ruins of the 16th-century Babri mosque at Ayodhya in northern India which was demolished a decade ago in a campaign led by the BJP.

Party hawks at the Raipur meeting stridently advocated the construction of a temple but moderate BJP leaders appeared reluctant to openly press for the new temple for fear of angering India’s 135 million Muslims.

Assembly elections are expected in November in five states and national polls are due next year. Parliament opens its monsoon session on Monday.

On Saturday, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), has been spearheading the campaign to build the temple, welcomed the resolution but also sounded a warning.

“If the BJP does not pass the resolution in the monsoon session of parliament then we will see what we should do,” Kishore said, telling the BJP: “It is not necessary to stay in power.”

“We will be meeting on Sept 13 to announce our future course of action,” Kishore told the NDTV news channel, saying that if the VHP did not see progress on the temple issue, “we will launch a mass agitation movement.”

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani — considered a hardliner with the BJP — had said groups like the VHP were unable to comprehend “that a large area of governance had nothing to do with ideology. People are concerned about roads, poverty and agriculture.”—AFP