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17. Malhotra�s statement on Ayodhya annoys Chavan

Indian Express
New Delhi, 21 November 1995
17. Malhotra�s statement on
Ayodhya annoys Chavan
Express News Service

NEW DELHI, November 20 - The demolition of the disputed Ayodhya structure once again created ripples in the meeting of Parliament�s Consultative Committee attached to the Home Ministry here today.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, asserted that he regarded the demolition of the disputed structure as a matter of national pride. This elicited a sharp, albeit belated, reaction from the Home Minister, Mr. S.B. Chavan, who warned that if some forces were determined to say that they took pride in the demolition of religious places, the Government was equally determined to see that these forces did not succeed.

Mr. Malhotra intervened after some members, including Mr. Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M) and Mr. Makhan Lal Fotedar (breakaway Congress faction), described the demolition as a national shame.*

Mr. Fotedar was critical of the Prime Minister, Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao. He stated that Mr. Rao should have owned up the responsibility for the demolition, resigned and apologised to the nation.

At this juncture, the Congress members, Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal, and Mr. V. Narayanaswamy, joined the issue with Mr. Fotedar and told him he was no less responsible for lapse, if any, as he was a member of the Union Cabinet at that time!

Mr. Malhotra�s intervention took Mr. Chavan by surprise. The Home Minister asked Mr. Malhotra whether he believed what he had said. The BJP member said that he stood by his assertion as, in his view, a symbol of national slavery had been erased.

The Home Minister reserved his warning that the forces out to destroy the religious places would not be allowed to succeed for his concluding remarks. Mr. Malhotra had gone away by then.

Interestingly, the BJP chief, Mr. L.K. Advani, and his senior party colleague, Mr. Sikander Bakht, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, both were not present when Mr. Malhotra made his remark. Mr. Advani put in a brief appearance and did not speak at all!

The meeting was called to discuss the latest situation in Varanasi arising out of the Gyanvapi mosque-Vishwanath Temple dispute and the general communal scenario in the country.
 

Footnotes:

* Vijay Kumar Malhotra is certainly a brave man who has had the courage to say publicly what most people in the Sangh Parivar, except the likes of Atal Behari Vajpayee, believe and say privately.
 

     

Time for Stock Taking - Whither Sangh Parivar?

Sita Ram Goel
Chapters
Introduction 1. A Call for an Intellectual (Bauddhika) Kshatriya 2. Ideological Defence of Hindu Society 1. G.V. Ashtekar 2. Professor G.C. Asnani 3. Deep Chandra Awasthi 4. P. N. Awasthi 5. S. K. Balasubramanian 6. Abhas Chatterjee 7. G.C. Chaudhary 8. S. K. Dalvi 9. Ashoke Dasgupta 10. Jitendra D. Desai 11. Nachiketa Dogra 12.  Adwayanand R. Galatge 13. K. B. Ganapathy 14. Padmashri Shalil Ghosh 15. Bhagwati Prasad Goenka 16. Shiv Goud 17. S. C. Gupta 18. B.L. Jaju 19. H.C. Joshi 20.  Dr. S.D. Kulkarni 21.  S.D. Laghate 22.  Professor K. Lakshminarayana 23. Professor K.S. Lal 24. Professor R. R. Mangasuli 25. T. G. Mohandas 26.  Professor S. G. Mujumdar 27.  P. R. K. Naidu 28.  S. Omkar 29. Virendra V. Parekh 30. Hem Raj Prabhakar 31. Baljit Rai 32. Dr. H. Ramarao 33. B.K. Rao 34. (Mrs) Veda Sampath 35. Smt.  M. Sandhya 36. K. Satya Deva Prasad 37. Jagannath Sharma 38. Ajit Singh 39.  Ram Autar Singh 40. Vikram Singh 41. Dr. Vinay Kumar Sinha 42. Shrikant G. Talageri 43. Mrs. Leela Tampi 44. B. K. Verma 45. R. C. Waswani 46. P. S. Yog 47. Brief Responses 1. Sarva Dharma Samabhãva or Sarva Dharma Sambhrama?  (Unity or Confusion of Religions?) 2. Meaning of Conversions 1. Roll Over, Rushdie 2. Standing Up to Scrutinize Islam 3. Turning away from Mecca 4. Islam is religious fascism 5. Courageous author puts his life on the line 6. Far more dangerous than Nazism 1. Legacy of hate 2. BJP shifts stand to woo Muslims 3. BJP promoting a �minority-friendly� image for elections 4. BJP looks for Muslim plank to move towards Delhi 5. BJP girds up to appease Muslim 6. Khurana�s go-slow on migrants issue irks hawks 7. Pampering the minority ego 8. BJP to bring out Koran in Sanskrit 9. Vajpayee for diluting stand on �Hindutva� 10. More Space for �namaaz� urged 11. Chhabildas sticks to his guns on minority votes 12. Advani allays minorities fears 13. Secret of BJP�s success 14. Advani woos Indian expatriates in London, assails Govt�s Kashmir policy 15. BJP bid to woo Muslims 16. �How can any Muslim in this country say that he does not respect Ram?� 17. Malhotra�s statement on Ayodhya annoys Chavan 18. BJP bid to win over Muslims 19. RSS wants Muslims for friends 20. Babri or �Barabari�? 21. Bihar BJP�s first-ever Muslim leader emerges 22. J.K. Hindu exiles eulogise Thackeray 23. Secularism is the very colour of our blood: Vajpayee 24. A good augury 25. Muslims in Behrampada voted in a pragmatic way 26. Joshi sparks off row over Religion Bill 27. VHP drops plan to �liberate� Kashi, Mathura 28. Govt seeks revision of order on Naib Imam 29. BJYM�S meet on June 7 30. Vande Mataram �dispute� at BJP Muslim meeting The Tabligh Movement or Millions of Bearded Militants on the March 1. Population Explosion in West Bengal: A Survey