2 April, 2005	Saturday	22 Safar 1426

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MUMBAI, April 1: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan said on Friday that a controversial campaign to build a temple on the ruins of the Babri mosque would be reignited. “We will rake up the issue again and go back to the public to garner support for the temple,” said Mr Mahajan. “It is our most desired but unachieved dream and we regret not having built the Ram temple at Ayodhya yet.”

The BJP will mark 25 years of its birth on Wednesday and the temple campaign is likely to take centre stage at a convention of the party in New Delhi.

“In 25 years we achieved many things like making India a nuclear power, a stronger economy and improving relations with Pakistan... but the most important dream of a temple at Ram’s birthplace has not yet been achieved,” said Mr Mahajan.

The BJP had in the early 1990s garnered massive support by campaigning to have a temple to the Hindu god Ram built on the site of the 16th century Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.

The campaign led to the demolition in 1992 by Hindu zealots of the mosque, sparking a communal bloodbath across India in which over 2,000 people were killed.

The issue is still in the courts and all attempts by BJP supporters to forcibly build a temple at the site have been thwarted by security forces.

“When we were in power, we did take steps to construct the temple but were not successful. We hope the courts take a decision quickly,” Mr Mahajan said.

Analysts said one of the reasons the BJP was swept from power by the Congress party in the parliamentary poll last year was because it focused on the temple at the expense of more pressing socio-economic issues. —AFP