New Delhi, July 24: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today accused the ruling dispensation of raking up the Ayodhya issue ahead of the assembly elections and attacked the manner in which senior leaders of BJP, RSS and VHP, including two ministers, were being "let off the hook" in the Babri demolition case. "The Ayodhya issue is once again dominating--or more accurately is being made to dominate--the headlines. Is it any surprise, given that five important state assembly elections are due in four months time," Gandhi said while addressing a general body meeting of the parliamentary party.
She said the matter was in the court and "we must await the judicial verdict" while making it clear that her party was not against a negotiated settlement. However, she said, such a settlement must get "legal sanction and sanctity".
Asserting that the party would not rest until all the guilty in the demolition case were brought to book, Gandhi said, "We have raised the issue in both Houses of Parliament relating to the manner in which all the senior members of BJP, RSS and VHP, including two ministers, are being let off the hook through the misuse of investigating agencies and resort to legalistic devices." The party was also "irrevocably" committed to the strict enforcement of the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991, that freezes the status of all places of worship other than that at Ayodhya as of August 15, 1947. Bureau Report