India's ruling Hindu nationalists recommit to controversial temple campaign

RAIPUR, India, July 19 (AFP) - India's ruling Hindu nationalists Saturday recommitted themselves to building a temple on the ruins of a razed mosque but tried to place the burden for a law over the explosive issue on its allies and the opposition.

The resolution, passed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a meeting in the central city of Raipur, appears aimed at assuaging both hardliners demanding the construction of the temple in Ayodhya and moderates who do not want to isolate Muslims ahead of elections.

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The resolution states the BJP supports the construction of the temple but is unable to pass a law in parliament without the support of the coalition's allies and the main opposition Congress party.

The statement emphasised that the Ayodhya issue would be best solved through negotiations and expedited court hearings.

In recent weeks, Hindu hardliners have been demanding that the BJP pass a law which will hand over the disputed piece of land claimed by both Hindus and Muslims.

The dispute centres around the ruins of the 16th-century Babri mosque at Ayodhya in northern India which was demolished a decade ago in a campaign led by the BJP.

Hindus argue the mosque was built by Muslim emperor Babur at the site of a temple at the birthplace of their god Ram that had been destroyed.

The 1992 destruction of the temple led to India's worst Hindu-Muslim rioting since the country's 1947 independence that left more than 2,000 people dead.

In the early 1990s, the BJP exploited the temple issue to increase its number of seats in parliament from two in 1984 to 119 in 1991. It now has 183 seats in the 545-member lower house.

Party hawks at the Raipur meeting stridently advocated the construction of a temple but moderate BJP leaders appeared reluctant to openly press for the new temple for fear of angering India's 135 million Muslims.

Assembly elections are expected in November in five states and national polls are due next year. Parliament opens its monsoon session Monday.

On Saturday, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) which has been spearheading the campaign to build the temple, welcomed the resolution but also sounded a warning.

"If the BJP does not pass the resolution in the monsoon session of parliament then we will see what we should do," Kishore said, telling the BJP: "It is not necessary to stay in power."

"We will be meeting on September 13 to announce our future course of action," Kishore told the NDTV news channel, saying that if the VHP did not see progress on the temple issue, "we will launch a mass agitation movement."

Vajpayee said on Saturday evening that the government would involve the VHP if an out of court settlement were ever reached with Muslims on the issue.

"It is our desire to solve the issue through goodwill. The most important thing is to have negotiations and we will continue on this path," he said.

Recently, an attempt at reaching a settlement was made between a leading Hindu seer and an influential Muslim body over Ayodhya, but the negotiations collapsed as no mutually acceptable proposal was found.

The Indian Prime Minister said he was confident that the federal government's ruling BJP Party will win the upcoming elections in five states.

"These polls will not only decide the fate of those states, but also set the direction for the country. We are fully confident that we will succeed in these states."

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