LUCKNOW, January 28: Atal Behari Vajpayee today said that if the BJP was voted to power, it would introduce a legislation to solve the Ayodhya issue only if all efforts for a negotiated settlement fail.Addressing a meet-the-press programme here, Vajpayee said if ``all efforts fail, only then BJP will bring a legislation to solve the Ayodhya issue,'' he said.Lashing out at the Congress, he said the party was on an apologising spree only in view of the coming Lok Sabha polls, he added that people could see through its politics. Although the Congress apparently believes that people will forget everything once it offers an apology, people are not so gullible, said Vajpayee. ``They are making a mockery of apology by offering it six years too late. In fact, such lame-duck excuses are like adding insult to injury,'' he stated.Vajpayee said: ``No Government can go scot free by offering apologies for its mistakes. It will have to be punished by the people by being kept out of power for its acts of omissionsand commissions''.If the Congress sincerely regrets its mistakes, it should offer an unconditional apology for every blunder committed during the party's 40-year rule in the country, he said. Although the Congress has apologised for Operation Blue Star, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and for the Babri Masjid demolition, it is yet to offer an apology to the over three lakh Kashmiri Pandits for making them refugees in their own country, said Vajpayee.The BJP leader urged the need for the Congress to apologise to the residents of Kashmir, Punjab and the North East for its failure to contain insurgency. It should also offer apologies for the prevailing ``economic mess'' in the country, he said. Refusing to apologise for the Babri Masjid demolition, he said his party, if voted to power at the Centre, would resolve the issue through negotiations. Asked if the BJP had abandoned the idea of introducing a bill in Parliament to facilitate construction of the Ayodhya temple, Vajpayee said the Bill would be brought onlyif the talks failed to resolve the issue.Blaming the entire Congress party for the Ayodhya demolition, he said party leaders had made former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao a scapegoat for electoral gains. He promised to ``put the recipients of money in the Bofors gun deal in the dock'' once the BJP came to power. He demanded the immediate publication of the charge-sheet in the case.Vajpayee accused Prime Minister IK Gujral of misleading him on the Bofors issue. ``Gujral told me that the Government had sanctioned prosecution of the two officials. However, it later proved to be wrong,'' he said. He did not rule out the possibility of Gujral backtracking on the publication of Bofors documents due to post-poll considerations. Vajpayee claimed that his party had made inroads in South India and election results would testify his claim.According to him, the BJP was certain to win some seats in Tamil Nadu due to its alliance with AIADMK while it has also received unexpected response in Andhra Pradesh. Whilethe BJP's position in Karnataka has been strengthened following its alliance with Ramakrishna Hegde's Lok Shakti, Vajpayee was skeptical about the party's chances in Kerala.
