By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Jul 6 2005 (IPS)

A suicide attempt to storm one of the world’s most disputed religious sites, Ayodhya in northern Uttar Pradesh state, may be just what the doctor ordered for both India’s secular, Congress party-led ruling coalition as well as the fractious, right-wing, Opposition groups led by the pro-Hindu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

INDIA Delhi Members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the World Hindu Council, and over 5000 Hindu holy men meet at Ram Lila Grounds. Credit: Ami Vitale / panos pictures

Immediate suspicion, based on style of operation, fell on the Pakistan-based Laskhar-e-Toiba (Soldiers of God – LeT), a militant group that is committed to ending Indian rule in the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir, the possession of which is disputed between Indian and Pakistan.

A similar ‘fedayeen’ attack carried out by a suspected LeT suicide squad on India’s ornate Parliament building in Dec. 2001 brought India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed countries, to the brink of a full-scale war the following year.

The LeT is opposed to recent peace initiatives between the South Asian neighbours and authorities in this country have said they were expecting moves by militant and fundamentalist groups to derail diplomatic efforts that include ‘softer borders’ through provocative attacks at religious or other sensitive targets.

Tuesday’s attack was considered serious enough for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make a statement carried over television condemning it as an attempt ‘’aimed at destablising our society and polity” and vowing to ‘’never compromise with terrorism.”

Singh’s government ordered police alerts across the country to prevent possible outbreaks of communal violence and took care to ‘’request all political leaders to help in maintaining public peace and communal harmony.”

The makeshift temple at Ayodhya was erected in 1992 by Hindu fundamentalist groups after they tore down the tri-domed, 16th century Babri Masjid mosque, which sparked off nation-wide riots between Hindus and Muslims communities that left 3,000 people dead and deeply polarising India’s political landscape on religious grounds.

Leaders of the BJP and affiliated pro-Hindu organisations hold that the Babri Masjid was built by iconoclastic Muslim invaders over the site of a Hindu temple that marked the birthplace of the warrior deity Rama.

The BJP used the issue to build up mass fervour among majority Hindus and, with support from regional parties inimical to the avowedly secular Congress party, managed to hold popular, national power for a six-year stint that lasted till May 2004.

However, during its years in power, the BJP found itself unable to build the temple to Rama because of court orders banning construction on the site and also because the party ran a minority government and depended on support from coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that were opposed to the temple-building agenda.

Tuesday’s attack immediately brought rapproachment between the BJP and hardline organisations that support it with men and muscle, especially the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), known best for the militaryûstyle drills its uniformed, stick-wielding, cadres perform in public parks.

In recent months, the RSS has been demanding the resignation of Lal Krishna Advani, the high-profile president of the BJP, who personally oversaw the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid but has since recanted publicly saying it was the saddest day of his life.

Even worse, from the point of view of the RSS, Advani, during a highly-publicised visit to Pakistan in April, visited the mausoleum of Mohammed Ali Jinnah and described the man who created the neighbouring country on religious grounds in 1947 as a ‘’secular” leader.

Immediately after Tuesday’s attack Advani – who once traversed the country in a motorised chariot whipping up support for a project to demolish the Babri Masjid and rebuild on the site a grand temple to the deity Rama – was visibly back in charge.

But Advani, who has been trying to revamp the BJP so that it has a more secular image and also considers the peace process between India and Pakistan important, said he would not immediately travel to Ayodhya û perhaps heeding the Prime Minister Singh’s appeal to political parties to help maintain public peace.

Of late, though, Singh, who runs the minority, Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), has had more trouble from its powerful communist allies than with the BJP-led opposition. Thai is because of its pro-liberalisation policies that seeks to sell away large public sector enterprises build up during decades of Soviet-style economic planning and state-control.

The communist parties support the Singh government from the outside but have the strength to make or break it. Leaders of the communist parties have been threatening to pull the plug unless the polices that openly encourage liberalisation and promote ties with the United States are reversed or slowed down.

‘’Sadly the present government has been toeing the line of capitalist forces and encouraging liberalisation which only serves the interest of about ten percent of the population,” said Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), at a press conference last week.

Karat has also been critical of a Indo-US ‘framework’ agreement on defence signed last week which independent analysts have said has compromised this country’s security interests by lending support to Washington’s stated policy of ‘containing’ India’s northern neighbour China.

Karat said the Indo-US agreement brought India to a level that was close to Washington’s traditional allies in the region like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines and he objected to the fact that it was concluded ‘’without any public debate or discussion within the country.”

The communists parties have stayed out of the government because of the serious differences it has with the Congress party over economic and foreign policies and made it clear that its support was purely to contain fundamentalist forces represented by the BJP and to maintain the secular character of the country.

Tuesday’s attack at Ayodhya resulted in quick consultations among top communist leaders who decided to patch up its differences with Singh’s government and prevent the BJP from gaining any political mileage out of it.

‘’We will not, at any cost, allow the BJP to bring the Ayodhya back on the political centre-stage,” said A.B. Bardhan, leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), the second largest communist party after the CPI-M.

Bardhan said it was also important not to allow the incident to affect the Indo-Pakistan peace intiative.

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