Bravado or intimidation? Threat of mass mobilization over Ayodhya

                 Much of the aggressive rhetoric being employed by the VHP over the Ayodhya temple issue may be
                      bravado. It is being pitched higher and higher and some in the VHP talk routinely of facing bullets
                      and going to jail — good for them. The facts, however, are slightly more distressing. The idea is to
                      transport some pillars to the site and do a puja. This involves the hiring of cranes and negotiating
                      narrow passages, a very difficult task, logistically. Next, according the supervisor of the workshop at
                      Ayodhya, the pillars cannot simply be planted on the ground, they will require a foundation six and a
                      half feet deep, over an area of 268ft by 140ft, and a plinth 8 feet high. All this cannot be done
                      overnight, short of storming the site, an option some insiders in the VHP are said to be considering if
                      a non-BJP government is in place on the curious reasoning that the Centre may then become more
                      sympathetic to the idea.
                      The reasoning seems entirely fallacious. The prime minister has made it clear that a repetition of
                      1992 would not be tolerated. Jana Krishnamurthy says the issue will remain dead for the party till
                      2004. The RSS is asking Muslims to build a mosque somewhere else to which the answer is — why
                      can’t the Hindus build their temple somewhere else? Besides which, this is not the kind of suggestion
                      one makes after committing an act of vandalism. Vajpayee has said there is intransigence on both
                      sides and the court will have to decide. Apart from the fact it is not a matter for the courts, the Centre
                      will not hand any land over to the VHP in the near future, either because it will be prejudicial to
                      legal proceedings or because it would break up the NDA — especially if there is no BJP government
                      in Lucknow — or both. The law ministry is, in any case, in no hurry to give an opinion on the issue of
                      handing over 47 acres outside the disputed area to the VHP. Other factors have to be taken into
                      account. If the exit polls are right, the absence of a right-wing Hindu issue hasn’t done much harm to
                      the BJP, indicating that the Hindu constituency is not anywhere as focussed on the issue as it once
                      was. Things work out differently at the local level where the empowerment of other castes is more of
                      a concern than a temple or a mosque in Ayodhya and here the notion of strategic alliances comes
                      into play more forcefully. See the progress the BSP is making with the help of upper caste
                      candidates. Even the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, said to be close to the Sangh Parivar, has said he
                      will go by the court verdict. The VHP’s potential for mischief should not be underestimated, nor
                      should its claim to represent the Hindu majority go uncontested.