26 February 2002

AYODHYA PARALYSES PARLIAMENT

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: The Opposition on Tuesday paralysed both Houses of Parliament, except to give a limited room to the Government to present the Railway Budget and the Economic Survey, by raking up the Ayodhya issue just hours before an all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister to discuss the situation arising from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) threatening to start construction of the Ram Temple on the demolished Babri Mosque site.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee personally intervened in the Lok Sabha to point out that all adequate and necessary steps have been taken to prevent anybody transgressing the disputed site now under the Central Government's possession and though a Yagya started in Ayodhya town was not on the disputed site, but steps would be taken against it if necessary.

In the Rajya Sabha, House leader and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh pleaded that the Government had made known its stand on not allowing anybody to take law in the hand on the Ayodhya issue by incorporating it in the President's address on the very opening day of Parliament and that the Government remains committed to protect the area.

The Opposition, however, continued pandemonium in both the Houses forcing repeated adjournments for the reason summed up by Congress leader Arjun Singh aptly in the Rajya Sabha when he pointed out that the nation cannot forget a similar solemn promise given by the ruling party in an affidavit to the Supreme Court was torn to pieces by illegally demolishing the Mosque and among those in the front was present Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani.

"Adequate security arrangements" were also made by the then BJP Government at the time when the mosque fell and hence nobody knows what happens when the threatening VHP diehards cross the limits again in Ayodhya to forcibly start the temple construction, Arjun Singh asked.

In the Lok Sabha, it was Congress deputy leader Shivraj Patil who feared the worst in store as he was not satisfied even from the Prime Minister's offer to discuss the issue in the House if the all-party meeting convened by him later in the evening was not enough.

"The Prime Minister is going out of the country on 28th, tomorrow is holiday (in parliament for Sant Ravidas birth anniversary) and then there is the Union Budget presentation on 28th," Patil said, while pleading that the Prime Minister must hear the members of the House forthwith lest the situation developing fast in Ayodhya goes out of control and nothing can be done thereafter as it happened in 1982 when the mosque was razed to ground.  END