The Congress’s minority support base in North India had suffered a massive erosion after it failed to prevent demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 despite being in power at the Centre. And the recent years have seen the emergence of the BJP with a Hindutva appeal. Struggling hard for revival against that backdrop, the Congress has cautiously began an exercise to craft its response on the Ayodhya issue ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict. The Congress was caught off guard by the BJP government’s Jammu and Kashmir gambit. And it does not want to repeat the mistake. Hence, a meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi last Friday, a day after Maharashtra and Haryana election results, saw a brainstorming on pros and cons of the upcoming verdict. The Congress’s stand should be “clear, simple and communicable” and the party should formulate its response timely, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi suggested, said a source present at the meeting. Sources said the group is likely to deliberate again since a final view on the Congress’s position has not been arrived at. While the Congress has time and again said it will respect and abide by the Supreme Court verdict, sources said the party’s response will depend on the wording and formulation of the order. There are a total of four potential scenarios that may come out of the verdict — the apex court can uphold the 2010 Allahabad High Court order as a title suit, it can uphold the order and comment on the Ram temple issue, the court can modify the high court order as a title suit and it can modify it and also refer to the Ram temple issue. According to party sources, the leaders were asked to think how the party would need to respond in each of these situations. The sources said the Congress position on the issue during the stints of Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri and Sonia Gandhi and its manifestoes for 1991, 1996, 1998 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections also came up during the deliberations. Having witnessed the BJP go from two seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections to 85 seats in 1989 on the back of support for the Ram temple movement, the Congress manifesto in 1991 prepared under the watch of the then party president Rajiv Gandhi had favoured “construction of the temple without demolishing the mosque” despite prefacing it with suggestions of a “negotiated settlement”. After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and the election of Rao as Prime Minister, the government enacted the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 which sought to maintain religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the August 15, 1947. But this legislation was not applicable to the ‘Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid’ complex. Next year, the Babri Masjid was demolished. This is widely attributed to be one of the important reasons behind the erosion of Congress support base in politically crucial UP and Bihar. The Congress manifesto prepared under the watch of Rao for 1996 elections tomtommed the 1991 Act that did not cover the disputed Ayodhya site. In the 1998 elections, Congress president Sitaram Kesri denied a Lok Sabha poll ticket to Rao for his alleged failure to protect Babri Masjid as Prime Minister, signalling the Congress position on the Ayodhya issue. The 1999 elections under Sonia Gandhi advocated the party’s commitment to the 1991 legislation. “The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 will be strictly enforced,” the manifesto promised. The last such reference to the issue was made in the Congress manifesto during 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when the party again called either for a negotiated settlement “between the parties to the dispute” or judicial settlement. That year, the Congress dislodged the NDA government and came to power. The ongoing deliberations come against the backdrop of a long-felt assessment in the party that the BJP had successfully painted it as a Muslim party.
