NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday sent out clear signals that it was pinning its hopes on the revival of the Ram temple movement to re-build its political fortunes. Some leaders of the National Democratic Alliance, however, said the effort was bound to fail.

Addressing a crowd of protesters here on Wednesday morning, BJP president L.K. Advani raised slogans of "Jai Shri Ram," while the crowd chanted "Mandir wahin banega [the Ram temple will be built at the disputed site]."

Committing his party to "building the temple there [at the disputed site]," Mr. Advani said that "with the terrorist attack in Ayodhya [on Tuesday], the temple issue had come alive" and that he would "pursue this vigorously."

A senior NDA leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, however, said the situation was very different from what it was in the early 1990s when the temple movement succeeded. "There is no `Mandal' issue — the backward caste reservations cannot be rolled back or wished away and the country and the world have changed."

He said that after V.P. Singh as Prime Minister announced the "Mandal" reservation in 1990, the BJP jumped on to the agitation spearheaded by the upper castes against the reservation and came up with the Ram temple issue to "consolidate" Brahmins and other upper castes behind the party. In today's situation, however, any attempt to revive the Ram temple movement would prove ineffective. "It cannot last even a few days."

Also, "our assessment [the NDA's assessment] is that 80 to 85 per cent of the people are not bothered about the Ram temple. They are concerned with `rozi-roti' issues. They are grappling with employment, hunger and survival issues ... Even if Mr. Advani, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organisations try their best, the issue will not last even a few days ... it is dead. Only the Shiv Sena [among the NDA allies] will support the BJP on this and today the Sena is facing an internal revolt."

Yet another reason why any attempt to revive the Ayodhya agitation was bound to fail was that "during the temple agitation some of the non-Yadav backward castes began supporting the BJP as they saw some of the socialist leaders to be only pro-Yadav, not pro-backward castes as a group," the NDA leader said in an apparent reference to Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Pat for security forces

Janata Dal (United) leaders such as Sharad Yadav on Wednesday said it was clear that the terrorists wanted to disturb the prevailing communal harmony. "The security forces prevented this from happening by stopping the terrorists from carrying out their design ... the security was alert ... if one cordon was broken that was not cause for concern as three security cordons were in place precisely for this reason."

He praised the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh for dealing effectively with the terrorists.

Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu, who was a key supporter of the NDA, is also reported to have commended the job done by the security agencies and appealed to the people to remain calm.

Disapproving BJP's attempt to revive the temple agitation, using the terrorist attack at Ayodhya as an excuse, NDA leaders predicted that there would be "little or no response" from the people as the security forces had done a commendable job.

Some of them blamed the BJP for trying to provoke a communal flare-up.

"They are throwing stones in an already surcharged atmosphere, that is obvious. The NDA cannot go along with this strategy."

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