Can’t trust BJP, says Digvijaya

The government on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision to reject the petition seeking deferment of the Ayodhya judgment, saying the people were mature enough to accept the verdict.

However, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh sounded a note of caution, taking the BJP’s appeal for peace with a pinch of salt.

He took a swipe at the party, asking the BJP to “restrain its cadres from indulging in violence”.

“I hope the BJP will realise that 2010 is not 1992,” he said.

Asked if he believed in the BJP’s assurance, Digvijaya retorted: “Over my dead body.” He recalled how then UP chief minister Kalyan Singh had violated the assurance given to the apex court to protect the disputed structure. In his view, the only mistake the Centre had then made was to believe what the BJP leadership had said.

Digvijaya accused L.K. Advani of “vitiating the communal atmosphere” of 1992 and of raising the Ram temple issue again in his recent statement at Somnath.

“The BJP’s relationship with Ram is limited to elections. What was BJP doing (for the Ram temple) when it was in power? They have only tried to use the issue politically,” he said, adding that Advani had not raised the issue as Union Home Minister and Deputy PM.

He denied any change in the party’s stand on the deferment.

On September 23, media department chairman Janardhan Dwivedi had welcomed the deferment and on Tuesday, he welcomed the SC order rejecting the petition for deferment.

But Congress leaders claimed there was no contradiction. “We welcome the order. The party has always held that the issue should either be resolved through talks or the court order should be obeyed,” said Dwivedi.

Reiterating the government’s stand, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily said going back at this stage was not desirable.

“We are now living in 2010 and the country has moved on since the turbulent days of the 1990s, we salute the people’s maturity.”

The government was not a party to the dispute, he said, but it has taken “a completely transparent stand that the judicial process should not be disrupted”.