Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Stop Any Move For Appeasement of VHP
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wishes to make it clear that the Vajpayee government is bound to maintain the status quo at the disputed site at Ayodhya and the acquired land around it. The CPI(M) wishes to warn the government that any move to allow puja at the "shilanyas" site which is part of the acquired land or, handing over any portion of the acquired land to the VHP would be a surrender to the VHP and subversion of the rule of law.
The proposal mooted by the Shankaracharya Shri Jayendra Saraswati on these lines is not acceptable as the VHP had made it clear that it sticks to the original blueprint for temple construction whereby the sanctum sanctorum of the temple will be located at the spot where the Babri Masjid stood. To allow a formal move for construction by doing puja at the shilanyas site or to handover any portion of the acquired land at this stage would mean accepting the VHP's plan for construction.
Such a move will flout the Supreme Court directive that nothing should be done till the title deed suit being heard at the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court is decided through the judicial process.
The country will not tolerate any repetition of the past history of surrender to communal pressures which can lead to serious disruption of national unity.
The Polit Bureau appeals to all secular and democratic forces to realise the danger of the moves being made by the BJP and the Central Government and unitedly demand that the Prime Minister stick to the position he stated earlier that the matter can now be resolved only on the basis of the court decision.