New Delhi, July 12: In a significant move, BJP on Saturday agreed to consider the VHP demand for a legislation to facilitate the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, according to the RSS. Seeking to iron out differences within the Sangh Parivar, RSS top brass on Saturday met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other senior leaders and urged them to address sympathetically VHP's concerns including the demand for legislation on Ayodhya, to which the BJP agreed, RSS Joint General Secretary Madan Das Devi told reporters. "BJP would consider the proposal (for a legislation to facilitate construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya) sympathetically at its forthcoming national executive meeting at Raipur," Devi said after about three-hour long interaction.

The BJP had been consistently maintaining that legislation was not "feasible" and was not on the NDA agenda. However, expressing disapproval of the VHP demand that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee quit over his "failure" to bring in legislation, Devi said, "making of such demands from such a democratically elected Government is incorrect."
The interactions, held a day after a meeting of RSS, VHP and other senior Hindu religious leaders, was attended by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu, RSS Chief K S Sudarshan and Devi.

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At Saturday's meeting, the RSS conveyed to the Prime Minister VHP's "concerns and expectations" and urged the Government leaders to ensure that the outfit was not "neglected" in any initiative to resolve the Ayodhya tangle, Devi said.

Describing the meeting as "very good", Devi asserted that the three options of solving the imbroglio through a court verdict, negotiations and possibility of a parliamentary legislation still existed. The RSS leader, however, said there was "no new roadmap" being considered at the moment though "new proposals may be considered."
"The BJP has agreed that the party will think over it," he said.

Devi, however, asserted there would be no compromise on the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya.

Asked whether the meeting also discussed giving up the claim on Kashi and Mathura in lieu of a settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, Devi emphatically said "No."
Bureau Report