In strictly legal terms, there is nothing wrong about  BJP vice-president K.L. Sharma's observation that his party may bring in a new law to facilitate the construction of the Ayodhya temple ... What (his) comments confirm is that in the event of the verdict going against the BJP and the negotiations, too, proving infructuous, the party may opt for a new law. As the ruling party, it cannot be denied the right to legislate on issues of its choice. It is up to the BJP to convince its allies and ensure the passage of the proposed legislation through Parliament. However ... when Vajpayee assured Parliament that the judicial pronouncement would be respected, he did not say anything about a new law being enacted to circumvent this very verdict. To that extent, Parliament remained in the dark about the BJP's, and the Sangh Parivar's next course of action.

What is relevant ... is not so much what steps, legal or otherwise, are being contemplated as the substantiation of the BJP's determination to build the temple. Mercifully, it now intends to follow a legal course, unlike what happened in 1992 ... But the point is ... that BJP is willing once again to plunge the country into the same communal maelstrom as it did 6 years ago. It has no compunctions either about the trauma which the country experienced or the widening of the communal gulf.

It clearly cares not a whit for the fact that, except for the Shiv Sena which shares its ultra-right views. its own partners in the ruling alliance do not endorse its plans for the temple ... Virtually the entire political spectrum is against reviving the temple issue. But if the BJP is still  determined to go ahead, it is obviously because it believes that whipping up a frenzy all over again ... will pay handsome political dividends ... Cynicism, and not religiosity ... remains the BJP's main motivating factor.