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Introduction: When 100-day Poornaahuti Yagya ends, the demand to begin temple construction will be made
The Ides of March in Ayodhya passed off without any violence and bloodshed with the entire central and state administration working overtime to “persuade” the VHP and the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas (RJN) not to rock the Vajpayee government. A huge soap opera was enacted in Ayodhya throughout the day as the VHP the RJN and the Vajpayee government looked for a face saver to back out from the mandir tamasha buildup over the last few weeks.
The price of this peace was a deal struck between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and RJN chairman, Ramchandra Paramhans, whereby Mr. Vajpayee flew in to Ayodhya Shatrughan Singh, the officer who is heading the Ayodhya cell in the PMO, to receive the “shilas”. These pillars are now the property of the central government since Mr. Singh went there as a special representative of the government. According to the district magistrate of Faizabad, they will be kept in a safe location away from the acquired land.
Apart from the prime minister who spoke to Paramhans not to go ahead with his suicide threat, Home Minister L. K. Advani was in constant touch with Ashok Singhal and Vinay Katiyar, and other senior ministers like Murli Manohar Joshi, George Fernandes, Jaswant Singh, I. D. Swamy and others were also speaking to VHP and RJN leaders constantly to diffuse the crisis and ensure that the supreme court's orders were not violated in any way.
Making a virtue out of necessity, the VHP leadership clung to the single point achievement of making the central government a party to the entire mandir issue in the form of Shatrughan Singh. According to VHP spokesman Praveen Togadia, the accepting of a shila by a central government official is their victory as it gives recognition to the issue of Ram mandir construction as well as acceptance by the central government that the Ram temple can be built on the ramjanmasthal.
But the VHP has also criticised the central government for the massive restrictions amounting to a virtual curfew in Ayodhya, the deployment of paramilitary forces and the restriction on the entry of kar sevaks to Ayodhya. They said the peaceful methods adopted by the VHP were in tune with the Hindu tradition of peace and were a slap in the face of all pseudo-secularists who were fearing the worst.
However, the open relief displayed
'by the Vajpayee government at the peaceful resolution to what could have
been a hugely explosive event may turn out to be merely temporary. The
VHP will wait till June 2, when their 100-day Poornaahuti Yagya ends. After
that they will again begin the demand for the handing over of the acquired
land to begin temple construction when the next episode of the Ayodhya
soap scripted by RSS, Mr. Advani and the VHP would be enacted once again
on the nation's television screens.
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