The Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpayee, always only eager to retain his office, went through a series of verbal acrobatics in the Parliament to disown such statements, while at the same time taking care not to condemn or reprimand the concerned leaders. In a classic case of wanting to have the cake and eat it too, Mr. Vajpayee took recourse to a blatant untruth on the floor of the House. He blandly stated that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister had never made any statement of this nature! He forgot that every word uttered by the UP CM is on video tape. And, the evidence is incontrovertible.

Three important allies of the NDA -- the TDP, Trinamul Congress and the JD(U) -- joined the Congress and the Left in forcing the Prime Minister to reiterate that the construction of the temple is not an issue on the NDA's agenda. The DMK displayed its gross insincerity and total lack of commitment to secularism by not joining the rest in seeking an explanation.

The important point, however, is to note that PM gave no assurance whatsoever that the BJP will not pursue its communal agenda. All he said was that the NDA will not do so. But, remaining in government and as the PM, he has sufficiently hinted that if the RSS and its octopus outfits raised this issue, it would receive his and his government's patronage. The RSS is clearly motivated to whip up emotions on this issue before the cases pertaining to the Babri Masjid demolition come up before the Lucknow bench of the CBI Special Court on December 22nd.