BJP back to Hindutva, committed to Ram temple

Lucknow, Dec 23: With the assembly elections around the corner, the BJP today returned to its Hindutva agenda, committing itself to constructing a Ram temple at Ayodhya while daring the Congress and the Samajwadi Party to rebuild the demolished shrine.

On the second day of the party's national conclave, BJP president Rajnath Singh, in his presidential address, was quite categorical about the party's commitment to the Ram Janambhoomi cause, the abrogation of Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and a Uniform Civil Code.

Mr Singh lambasted the UPA regime at the Centre and the Samajwadi party government in UP for resorting to a policy of ''minority appeasement'', for ''parochial vote-bank politics''.

The party chief also attacked the Left parties, which have been supporting the UPA government from outside, for ''arm-twisting'' in pursuance of their ''irrelevant ideologies'' even at the cost of developmental work and economic growth.

Mr Singh made a vitriolic attack on the UPA government for its ''faulty policies'' on various key issues, including national security and sovereignty.

The three-day conclave here is being attended by top leaders of the party including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani besides over 3,000 delegates from all over the country.

The party moved a four-page draft resolution titled ''The UPA Government's Vote Bank Politics'', in which it cautioned that such politics would bring about another Partition.

''By attempting to re-inject religion-based quotas and reservations into India, the Congress is re-opening old wounds. The BJP would like to remind the Indian people that the creation of separate electorates and the categorisation of society along religious lines had produced a separatist mindset and led to the Partition of India in 1947,'' said the resolution, moved by former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and seconded by former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.

An upbeat and confident BJP chief tried to scotch he raging controversy on the issue of the party's Prime Ministerial candidate, declaring that both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani were the party's ''twin-mascots.'' ''We are proud of the fact that the two of the tallest leaders of the country, Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani, are with us,'' he said.

In a tough message to partymen, Mr Singh warned them that indiscipline would not be tolerated in the BJP, which would strive hard to regain its image of a ''party with a difference''.

Mr Singh sharply criticised the UPA Government for pursuing a policy of ''Muslim appeasement'', inking the Indo-US nuclear deal and failing to arrest spiralling prices of essential commodities. He expressed grave concern over the security scenario and said the situation was deteriorating because of the Government's ''soft approach'' towards terrorism, including its ambivalent attitude on the execution of the death sentence awarded to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

UNI