Ten years after the demolition of the 16th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Kalyan Singh is remorseful about what happened on December 6, 1992 while he stood at the helm of affairs in Uttar Pradesh.
Not only was Singh UP chief minister but having played a leading role in the Ayodhya movement, he was also branded among the chief architects of the demolition. Significantly, he was the only prominent leader formally convicted by the courts and underwent a day's imprisonment for his failure to keep his commitment to the Supreme Court about ensuring the safety of the disputed shrine.
But the going has not been smooth since for the man without whose tacit support the mosque could not have been demolished. In the first assembly election that followed the demolition, his Bharatiya Janata Party failed to muster a majority. Instead, it was the BJP's political adversary Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajawadi Party who rode to power with the Bahujan Samaj Party's support.
It was only through political machinations that Kalyan Singh got to the chief minister's chair - after getting the BSP to ditch Mulayam Singh and offering the chief minister's office to BSP leader Mayawati who was then double-crossed within four months. Kalyan Singh then forged defections within the BSP and Congress to head a conglomeration of an unprecedented 95-member cabinet.
Once known for his grit, he began to bend before recurring political compulsions. A controversial relationship eventually led to the unthinkable -- his ouster from the BJP, a party which he had carefully nurtured in India's most populous state over the years.
Today, the BJP is his number one enemy; his former bete noire Mulayam Singh a political associate. When rediff.com Special Contributing Correspondent Sharat Pradhan confronted him over the Ayodhya issue, Kalyan Singh had a different voice, a new tone. "I never wanted the mosque to be pulled down," he claimed in an exclusive interview.
How do you feel 10 years after the Babri Masjid was pulled down during your regime?
I never wanted the mosque to be pulled down. I was against any such move right from day one. But BJP and VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) leaders took me for a ride.
How can you substantiate that claim?
There is written evidence that I have with me in support of this claim. When I submitted my assurance before the Supreme Court to ensure full protection of the disputed structure, the court sought some documented support from those who were spearheading the temple movement. It was then that Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia and Swami Chinmayanand, two prominent VHP leaders, gave me a written undertaking that only a symbolic kar seva would be carried out in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
They also swore that no harm of any kind would be caused to the structure. And you believed them?
I had no reason to disbelieve them. Therefore, I was utterly shocked when news of the demolition was broken to me at the chief minister's home in Lucknow from where I had been keeping a close watch on the Ayodhya developments.
Who do you blame for the demolition?
Who else? It was the handiwork of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who had the tacit support of some top BJP leaders who were still busy indulging in double-speak.
Are you referring to Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L K Advani?
Mr Vajpayee is adept in the art of double-speak. He is the biggest double-faced man I have ever come across in public life. It was too late in the day that I realised one must not take him at face value at all.
But you were the only BJP leader to get prosecuted and convicted.
That was because I owned up moral responsibility for the deed. I felt morally bound to accept that responsibility in my capacity as chief minister of the state. I am sure not many politicians - not a single one in the BJP - would display that kind of courage to do so.
Do you think the BJP or VHP will ever build the temple?
I am confident that neither is interested in building the temple. While the BJP believes only in playing politics in the name of the Ram temple, the VHP is out to mint money. Haven't you seen how each time they hype this issue it always ends in an anti-climax?
Do you mean to say the hype is deliberate?
Absolutely. Take the most recent case when Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhans chose to rake up the issue to an extent that he even threatened to defy the courts. Once the court pulled him up, he readily succumbed and promptly tendered an apology. Likewise, in March, when (VHP international president) Ashok Singhal and Paramhans gave a call for starting the construction of the temple, they only ended up with the much dramatised shila pujan and shila daan which actually meant nothing.
Obviously, the game is different - to draw people from different corners of the country and to attract funds from innocent Hindus across the globe who think they are doing a great service to their religion by doling out handsome amounts as donations that go unaccounted and unaudited for.
The BJP has of late said the Ram temple is not on their agenda.
If Ayodhya is not on the BJP agenda, then what was the purpose behind the rath yatra undertaken by Lal Krishna Advani from Somnath to Ayodhya (in 1990)? Also, why was the slogan: Ram Lalla hum aaye hain mandir yahin banayenge coined and used profusely by the BJP at each of its election campaigns right from 1991? Why did the BJP conclave at Palanpur specially pass a resolution to express its commitment 'to build the Ayodhya temple?' And what was the shila pujan all about? The BJP's primary interest is to remain in power and its leaders can utter any lies and do anything to stick on there.
Do you see any possibility of a permanent solution to the tangle?
The best solution could come only through dialogue, but that is possible only if politicians and those affiliated with political parties are kept out of the entire process. Let a few honest and sincere Hindu sants and equally apolitical maulanas and ulema, together with popular representatives of both Hindus and Muslims from Ayodhya, sit across the table with an open mind. I am sure an amicable and permanent solution will follow.