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IN THE NEWS 2003 Hindus
to reignite Ayodhya dispute By
Edward Luce in New Delhi Published:
February 5 2003 4:00 Financial
Times – Asia Pacific Rightwing
Hindu groups in India are to launch a national campaign to build a temple in the
town of Ayodhya on the site of a former mosque that was demolished by amob 10
years ago. Atal Behari
Vajpayee, India's prime minister, yesterday said he wanted the dispute - which
has aggravated relations between the country's majority Hindu and minority
Muslim communities - to be resolved through peaceful mediation. Mr Vajpayee
yesterday met the Kanchi Shankaracharya, a prominent Hindu religious figure, who
has offered to mediate between the Vishwa Hindu Parishad - the World Council of
Hindus - and Muslim groups seeking to rebuild their mosque on the disputed site. The VHP,
which is closely allied to Mr Vajpayee's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has
threatened to ignore a supreme court ruling that forbids any group from entering
the site to begin construction until the question of ownership has been legally
resolved. Rightwing
groups think the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, an important god in the
Hindu pantheon. The destruction of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 triggered
some of India's bloodiest communal rioting since the country was partitioned in
1947. "The
new campaign to build a temple in Ayodhya is a very calculated political
decision to raise communal tensions ahead of the next national election in
2004," said Gautam Navlakha, an anti-communal activist. Political
analysts say that the VHP's campaign to start construction of the temple has
been encouraged by the dramatic election victory of the BJP in the state of
Gujarat last December. The BJP's landslide win followed widespread anti-Muslim
rioting last year in Gujarat that was triggered by the massacre of 58 Hindu
train passengers by a Muslim mob. Many of the
passengers were VHP activists returning from an earlier agitation in Ayodhya to
build a Ram temple. Up to 2,000 Muslims were killed in the riots. "The
Gujarat election victory has given Hindus the confidence to agitate for their
rights," said Tarun Vijay, editor of Panchjanya, a Hindu nationalist
newspaper. "This includes a final push to build a temple on the site in
Ayodhya." But there is widespread scepticism that the Kanchi Shankaracharya,
who has close connections with the VHP, would be accepted as a neutral mediator
by Muslim groups. "The
Shankaracharya has ambitions to become a kind of Hindu pope," said Ravi
Nair, a human rights campaigner. "In order for his ambitions to be accepted
he has to deliver a Ram temple." There is also criticism of Mr Vajpayee for
failing to quash the VHP's demands by pointing out that the dispute is still
under legal deliberation. Mr Vajpayee faces important assembly elections in
November in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, New Delhi and Chattisgarh. "The
BJP and the VHP are playing 'good cop, bad cop'," said Mr Nair. "It is
in the government's interests to appear to want to resolve the dispute calmly.
But the poll in Gujarat shows that the BJP derives electoral benefits from
heightened communal tension."
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