Vajpayee had plan to solve Babri dispute, was upset by demolition'

As LK Advani's controversial Rath Yatra kicked up dust in the autumn of 1990, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his team came up with a formula to resolve the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

- HT Correspondent

Under the plan, the government would acquire 67 acres of land in Ayodhya to give to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, except for the disputed site, and refer the case to the Supreme Court. Then prime minister VP Singh agreed to issue an ordinance to the effect but Advani, who didn’t trust Singh, backed out of the deal. Vajpayee continued to try, convincing Singh the next day to unilaterally issue the ordinance. The president was “pulled out of his bed at 12.30 at night” to sign the ordinance.

But the move infuriated the Babri Masjid Action Committee and Janata Dal leaders such as Mulayam Singh Yadav. On the other side, the VHP didn’tagree to defer its kar seva plans and Advani continued his yatra. A chastised Singh took back his ordinance.

This revelation is part of historian Abhishek Choudhary’s new biography of the former PM, Believer's Dilemma: Vajpayee and the Hindu Right's Path to Power, 1977-2018, the second of a two-part volume.

In the book, Choudhary touches on Vajpayee's initial friction with Morarji Desai in the 1970s, a secret meeting exploring diplomatic ties with Israel, and his zeal to bring Hindi into the external affairs ministry. He also touches upon Vajpayee's "doublespeak" during the Babri Masjid demolition, his push for the nuclear test in 1998 under a shroud of secrecy, and his premonition of a loss in the 2004 elections. The book also looks at the genesis of the Lahore bus diplomacy and how close India and Pakistan came to resolving the Kashmir conundrum.

The book said the Mandal Commission recommendations for backward class reservations divided the BJP vertically.