Capping the controversy over the Bharatiya Janata Party's stand on the Ayodhya issue, NDA allies on Monday decided to further strengthen the opposition alliance and preferred a "negotiated settlement" to the Ram temple issue.
"We the leaders of constituents of the NDA have resolved further that the NDA is as relevant and its unity as important now as during the six-year period when our alliance provided the first stable and successful coalition government in the history of independent India," a resolution adopted at the meeting said.
Reading out from the resolution, NDA convenor George Fernandes said "the NDA believes that an early and amicable resolution of Ayodhya issue will promote national integration and strengthen India socially as no other issue can".
Fernandes announced that he would be leaving for Chennai tomorrow and try to meet Kanchi Shankaracharya. Terming the Kanchi Seer's arrest as "unfortunate", the NDA convener said "he did not deserve that kind of treatement".
"It is our shared belief that NDA is the only and true alternative to the contradictions-ridden Congress-Communist combine, which is set to take the nation on a ruinous path. All the constituent parties of the NDA dedicate themselves to expose this regime", the resolution said.
The meeting was attended among others by BJP president L K Advani, JD (U) leaders Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav, M Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh and V K Malhotra from BJP, S S Dhindsa (Akali Dal), Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD), Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and P C Thomas (Indian Federal Democratic Party).
The meeting was called at the instance of JD (U) following Advani's remarks at the BJP's national council meeting in New Delhi on October 27 that his party was committed to the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
Fernandes sought to blame the media for the controversy and said the meeting was called to clear the misunderstanding caused by the news reports on Advani's remarks.
The opposition alliance also committed itself to "strengthening the constitutional ideal of secularism as expounded by Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian seers".
In an apparent message to Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, the meeting also called upon all anti-RJD forces in Bihar to "unite and give effect to the people's keen desire for a change in the forthcoming elections".
