BJP never wanted to build Ram temple — Thakre

The BJP president’s remarks came when he was asked to react to the controversy surrounding the Ayodhya issue following the recent statements made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta and Union Tourism Minister Uma Bharati.

According to Thakre, his stand and the positions taken by other BJP leaders cannot be construed as a “compromise” on the party’s ideology. This was because the Ayodhya issue which the BJP had begun raising from 1989 in a big way was a “programme”.

“Programme is not ideology. These are programmes. This is not ideology you see the BJP… says that we believe in democracy, we believe in value-based politics, we believe in sarva dharma samabhav, we believe in nationalism. They are the basic tenets which we believe in; there may be so many programmes…But basic issues have not changed.”

Thakre claimed there was “complete consensus in our party (on the Ayodhya issue). There is no difference of opinion. Today, this Ayodhya mandir issue is not on the agenda of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and we are part of it and that is our agreed programme and we are going to follow that.”

When pointed out that the UP Chief Minister Gupta had been reported as saying that Ayodhya may not be on the agenda of the NDA, but it certainly continues to be part of the BJP’s priorities, Thakre reiterated: “The Bharatiya Janata Party has no separate manifesto this time. In this election, it is only on the NDA agenda on which we fought the election.”

On why the BJP had not responded to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s decision to build a temple at Ayodhya and that 212 stone pillars for the proposed temple had been cut, the BJP president remarked: “This point was also raised in Parliament when our government was not there and the government at that time, the (Union) home minister Indrajit Gupta (had said) that whatever has been done is legal.”