LUCKNOW, JULY 12: Ram Prakash Gupta's BJP-led coalition government is on a overdrive to please the Sangh Parivar in general and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in particular. Not only has it gifted 43 acres of Horticultural Department land to Sadhvi Ritambara but it has also cancelled a notification issued on December 10, 1999 for the survey of Hindu religious trusts, temples and their assets.Ritambhara's Param Shakti Peeth had first been allotted the land in November 1992 by the then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. After the Babri Masjid demolition, Kalyan Singh was sacked and the Governor stayed the allotment. When Mulayam Singh Yadav became Chief Minister, he cancelled the allotment describing it as a ``fraud.''Horticulture Minister Dhanraj Yadav justified the allotment of 43 acres worth more than Rs 20 crore on an annual rent of Re 1 for 99 years, saying it had been allotted to the Sadhvi to open an ashram for homeless widows and girls. Though the decision to allot the land had been taken by the Cabinet on June 17, it was only on July 7 that the Government issued the allotment order.The survey, which the government has cancelled, was intended to gather information on the assets belonging to religious trusts and temples for the government record. But recently, a rumour that the Government was conducting it for the purpose of acquiring the property, did the rounds. A few sadhus of Hardwar, Rishikesh, Mathura, Vrindavan, Varanasi, Ayodhya and Allahabad gave a call to even `overthrow' the Government calling it anti-Hindu.The Chief Minister sent his minister for Culture and Religious Endowments, Ramesh Pokharial, to Hardwar to tell the religious leaders that the notification had been cancelled.Both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have condemned the stateGovernment's decision to allot the land to the Sadhvi and the cancellation ofthe survey.Congress spokesman Ram Kumar Bhargava and state president of SP, Ram Sharan Das, said the state Government was being run by the RSS and the VHP and not by Ram Prakash Gupta.Incidentally, VHP working president Ashok Singhal held a meeting with Ram Prakash Gupta late last night. According to reliable party sources, Singhal discussed the temple issue with the Chief Minister before leaving for Ayodhya.The VHP has consistently stuck to its plans to build a Ram temple inAyodhya. During the Kumbh in Allahabad next year, the VHP leaders are likely to decide on the plan of action.
