Vajpayee and BJP big gamble likely to boomerang saffron brigade

New Delhi, Dec 7 (NNN) : The cat is finally out of the bag.

After lying low for months for the sake of power, the hidden real intentions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came out in the into the open on Thursday with its "soft mask" Atal Behari Vajpayee declaring the Ram Temple an "unfinished national task".

In a stunning statement that has threatened to certainly revive the ghost of Ayodhya, as is very much clear from the vehement reaction of all opposition parties in Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Vajpayee on Wednesday shamelessly described the Ram Temple movement as an unfinished national agenda and an "expression of national feeling" that was yet to be realised.

The soft mascot of the BJP for once has showed his true colours, sending shock waves not only among opposition parties but also among many of the partners of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

And with it he has sent alarm bells ringing among the secular elements across the country.

One cannot help but wonder at the compulsions that could have led Vajpayee to abandon his moderate face and rake up, after having kept it on the backburner ever since coming to power, one of the most controversial and divisive issues in Indias recent history.

Prime Minister Vajpayees unstatesman-like statement given a new life to an issue, as old as over 150 years and that has been responsible for some of the worst communal riots in the country, leaving hundreds of innocent people dead, the latest being the 1992 bloodshed in the wake of demolition of dilapidated old structure of Babri Masjid by hoodlums styled as "kar sevaks".

It is quite significant that the statement has come at a time when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), as per its own claims, is busy preparing to build the Ram Temple once again at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Only on Wednesday, as the nation remembered as Black Day the demolition of the Babri Masjid eight years ago, the VHP said it was ready with as many as 106 pillars for undertaking the first phase of the construction of the Temple.

While one could understand the strong defence the prime minister has put up for the three senior chargesheeted BJP leaders - Home Minister L K Advani, Human Resources Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Uma Bharati -and ministers in his cabinet for whose blood the opposition is baying for, what is really difficult to understand is why Vajpayee had to go beyond that at this juncture.

The immediate repercussions of Vajpayees statement are already beginning to be felt within the ruling alliance and will no doubt also hurt the BJPs recent bid to woo Muslims ahead of the assembly elections early next year in four states of the country.

What, however, is of particular concern is that Vajpayees brazenly hard-line stance is bound to embolden the extremist elements within the Sangh Parivar, who are already on the offensive.

A move hardly befitting the prime minister, and that too one who heads a fragile coalition comprising parties at least some of whom lay claim to upholding the secular character of this vast country, statement is going to hurt the nation as a whole.

Vajpayees statement seems even more ominous when read with that of BJP chief, Bangaru Laxman, who in Jaipur on Wednesday made it clear that his party did not think it had committed any mistake so far as the Ayodhya issue was concerned.

Far from even to think of apologising for the mayhem it had unleashed eight years ago on the people of this country, the BJP and Vajpayee seemed to have inflicted a big blow to the secular image of India.

While the opposition has so far concentrated its attack on the three ministers chargesheeted by the court in the demolition case, the latest development has certainly jolted it into stronger action.

The Congress in particular should be alive to the dangers posed by this new threat, and should take the initiative, without any delay, to tackle it before it assumes demonic proportions.

Certainly it can not be a slip of tongue on the part of Vajpayee to come with this thunder-bolt.

The move doesnt seemed to be out of blue, it is a very well thought-out strategy on the part of Hindutva brigade to gauge the mood of people of this country.

However, not matter how well-planned the saffron move may have been it is going to boomerang on the communal rabids who have failed to read deeply ingrained the secular writing on the countrys wall.

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