Samata rules out support for any law on Ram temple

While George Fernandes is likely to be re-elected as the party president tomorrow, the meeting would lead to a consolidation of the hold of Railways Minister Nitish Kumar on the party. Two members of the Lok Sabha, Raghunath Jha and Brahmanand Mandal, suspended from the party by Fernandes at the behest of Kumar earlier, are likely to be shown the door.

Samata Party president George Fernandes is the convenor of the NDA. Close to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpyaee, he is always on the forefront for managing difficult BJP-allies — be it AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa in one phase or Mamata Banerjee in another. If he positions himself against the legistive option, there is no way the BJP can look forward to success in carrying along its NDA partners on this count.

The Samata held that ‘‘the Ayodhya dispute must be resolved through dialogue or by abiding by a verdict of the court’’. The draft resolution felt ‘‘that a continuing dialogue between the moderates of both communities will resolve the issue, or at least create a climate in which the acceptance of the court verdict, whatever it may be, can be brought about with ease.’’ Given the fact that Fernandes too has been paying court to Kanchi Kamakoti Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi in the course of his Ayodhya initiative, the stress on the dialogue is understandable.

The draft resolution also asked the Government ‘‘not to commit Indian forces in Iraq unless the command of such forces is under the aegis of the United Nations’’. Coming as it does barely a day before the Cabinet Committee on Security is scheduled to discuss the issue, the implication of the Samata view can be hardly understated when party president George Fernandes happens to be a key member of the CCS. The fate of the US request for the deployment of Indian troops is anybody’s guess.

The party pointed out: ‘‘Having been strongly opposed to US-led coalition forces’ attack on Iraq, it is necessary for us to engage in activity welcomed by the people themselves. The Iraqi people are today under the administrative control of the United States without any legitimate mouthpiece of their own. Unless India can bring back law and order and self-respect of the Iraqi people under internationally accepted criteria we should not be in a hurry to send troops to that country.’’

While the BJP continued to measure its words with regard to the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi, the Samata Party document launched a scathing attack on the Congress for choosing ‘‘to tell the world that only a foreign-born person of no political or administrative experience is capable of heading this great nation’’.

The Samata described this as ‘‘the single biggest act of humiliation that could ever be heaped on a nation’’ and said that the Congress perhaps wished to ‘‘tell the nation that neither the party nor the country has anyone more capable than its foreign-born accidental leader’’.