136 "Presenting" the Past
later admitted a broad consensus within the ruling NDA that it would be
an acceptable solution. The party wanted to explore the possibilities of
adopting legislation in Parliament and sought the support of its allies and
the Congress party. But they all summarily rejected the cunning move.
On August 1, 2003, both Prime Minister Vajpayee and Deputy Prime
Minister Advani pledged at the funeral of Ramchandradas Paramhans,
the chairman of the VHP outfit Ramjanmabhumi Nyas, that a Ram temple
would be built at Ram Janmasthan (birthplace). Vajpayee asserted further
that he would strive toward the cause the mahant lived for. The opposition
parties criticized the prime minister's declaration on a sensitive issue that
was sub judice and accused him of reneging on his commitment to Par-
liament that the solution to the dispute would be determined by a court
verdict or through a negotiated settlement. However, Vajpayee disowned
that statement later and said there was no change in the government's
Ayodhya policy of solving it through talks or courts.
On September 19,2003, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
court hearing the Babri Masjid demolition case discharged Advani but
found grounds to proceed against seven other accused, including VHP
leader Ashok Singhal, Human Resource Development Minister Murli
Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, and so on. On October 17, the VHP orga-
nized the Sankalp Sammelan (Mass Awareness Campaign) to press for
the construction of Ram temple. Even as the UP government of Mulayam
Singh Yadav cracked down on the VHP activists, Prime Minister Vajpayee
exhorted that the VHP be trusted in its claim that it would hold the meet-
ing peacefully. VHP leader Praveen Togadia warned openly that the coun-
try would be engulfed in communal riots if the Rambhakts were stopped
from having a darshan of the deity in Ayodhya.
A fresh effort was made to resolve the Ayodhya issue, and part of that
was an appeal made by the Dalai Lama. Behind the scenes, a Jama Masjid
Trust was set up at Ayodhya, and a large piece of land, away from the
central-government-acquired land in and around the disputed site, had
been identified for the trust to build a mosque. However, the AIMPLB
insisted that it was the only authorized body to deal with the Ayodhya
issue on behalf of the Muslim community. Even in the run-up to the 2004
general elections, Advani always spoke about the BJP's development
agenda with an Ayodhya footnote. And the footnote changed depending
upon the audience. While he bellowed in Mathura that the Ram temple
would be built in Ayodhya and India would have Ramarajya, he was quite
mellow in Aligarh, a mostly Muslim town, saying that the Ram temple
would be built through negotiations and without any bitterness.
The two-day governing council meeting of the VHP that began on June
30,2004, at Kolkata announced that the organization would begin the con-
struction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya within a year. The BJP discussed
the issue at some length at its national-executive committee meeting in