GORAKHPUR: Lal Krishan Advani, president of the rightwing BJP Noy 30, said though all other parties Wet keen to ‘avoid a midterm poll the BJP was ready to take the plunge to seek’ the People’s mandate.
Advani told reporters here on his way to Siean (Bihar), the Congress (I) and other political parties were trying to avoid the poll so that people might forget the police firing on*Hindu volunteers proceeding to ‘construct a temple on a disputed site in Ayodhya.
He said “pseudo secular” politicians and political parties were trying to brand the BJP a communal party.
Advani said the construction of a temple at Ayodhya at the birth place of the Hindu God Rama would not only defeat the designs of Pseudo Secularists, but also prove to be a milestone towards forming a real ‘secular India.
Advani said the Babri mosque, which currently stands on the disputed site, was only a “structure” not a mosque and could be shifted to some other place,
He said Muslims were not offering prayers at the disputed place for the past many years and so they should shift the mosque at least five away from the present site.
NEW DELHI: The election commission has decided to ascertain a Statement by Congress (I) leader Arjun Singh accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of having said the commission had “no jurisdiction” to inquire whether the BJP role in the Babri Masjid controversy violated electoral law.
Singh and several other petitioners had in petitions filed before the commission asked it to derecognize the BJP as a political party for allegedly violating its oath to stand by secularism. They also asked the Commission ‘to freeze the election’ symbol’ of “Lotus” ‘as it had been converted into a religious symbol by BJP president L K Advani’s Rath Yatra.
Election commission sources said the BJP’s reply to the petitions challenging the power of the commission to go into the issues would be sent to the petitioners for comments before the commission considers whether to hold a hearing.
The BJP had in a six page interim reply sent on November 6 said the petitions were “totally misconceived” as the commission could neither involve itself in political analysis of the ideology and programmes of a political party nor determine whether it should be deregistered.”
The debate over derecognition has arisen out of a provision introduced last year in section 29A of the representation of people act requiring all political parties to register themselves afresh after swearing by democracy, socialism and secularism.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 7, 1990
