NEW DELHI: Indian prime minister V.P Singh fearing a communal conflagration over the Temple Mosque dispute in UP had Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Lal Kishan Advani arrested and told the President he was confident of proving his majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) for his minority National Front govt despite losing support of the BJP its biggest ally.

The BJP’s 88 members along with 52 Left party men had enabled Mr V.P Singh to form a govt last December with only 198 ruling party men in a house with an effective strength of 524 members.

While the president consulted legal and constitutional experts, V.P Singh awaited Tuesday night word from Rashtrapati Bhavan on convening the Lok Sabha where he says he will prove his majority.

Singh has said he will not resign but was unable to say how he will make up for the lost BJP support.

The Left Party leaders agreed with Singh that he need not resign at this juncture and should be allowed to test his strength.

Conveying its decision to the President, the BJP asked him to ensure there would be no horse trading on the future of the NF govt.

While Babri Masjid Action Committee has called off the Bharat Bandh, an all India strike set for Oct 30 when BJP and VHP planned to start building the temple in Ayodhya, the BJP has called for a Bharat Bandh on Oct 24 to protest against the arrest of its president Mr LK Advani.

BJP had not taken a decision till Tuesday evening on Advani’s ‘rath yatra’ which he had begun in Somnath in Gujarat and was half way through and had reached Samastipur where Advani was arrested Tuesday morning. The yatra was planned to drum up communal passions for the Hindu cause to build a temple. The UP govt had arrested 22,000 volunteers (the BJP says the figure is 50,000) who were to arrive at the Mosque site which they proposed to demolish. The UP govt had declared a red alert.

There has been a similar crackdown in Bihar on activists of the BJP, RSS, Shiv Sena, VHP and Bajrang Dal all dominant Hindu organisations.

The federal cabinet reviewed the law and order situation and told state govt’s to take advance action to prevent trouble in sensitive areas.

Shops in UP and Himachal Pradesh downed shutters in protest against Advani’s arrest. Mulayam Singh Yadav has congratulated Lalloo Prasad Yadav Bihar CM who said he had arrested Advani to prevent a communal flare up. The two Yadavs are staunch supporters of VP Singh.

The Janata Dal, the parent party, has rallied around the prime minister with SR Bommai ruling out any change in party leader:

Devi Lal was quoted as saying “the govt will not fall, it will continue”.

Chandrashekhar, the loudest critic of V.P Singh within the Janata Dal said “I am sorry, because of poor handling; there was no option but to arrest Advani. He said he was not blaming anyone but thought BJP would have postponed its temple plan had the govt talked to it in earnest”.

“Governments can come and go but the nation must be saved,” Mr Singh said in a nationwide broadcast at the end of day of hectic political activity, on Monday highlighted by the formation of a committee of six chief ministers to evolve a quick solution.

The prime minister said permitting construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site would divide the nation on religious lines and lay the foundations of a theocratic state,

Criticizing the National Front ally BJP for using its election symbol on party president L K Advani’s Rath Yatra, Singh nevertheless sought a six month reprieve to solve the issue.

Meanwhile several Hindu religious heads would gather at an “undisclosed” place next week to proceed collectively for Ayodhya to start construction of the Temple, Acharya Dharmendra Maharaj, a member of the national executive of the Ram Janam Bhoomi Mukti Yajna Samiti, said on Saturday.

In Ludhiana Jagdish Tangri, president of the North India Shiv Sena and 19 other volunteers were arrested.

National front chairman N.T. Rama Rao appealed to VHP leaders to positively respond even at this stage to the initiative taken by the center in the Babri Majid Ram Janmabhoomi issue.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 26, 1990