The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday put the blame for the failure of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati's Ayodhya initiative on the doorstep of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"Perhaps the prime minister withheld something from the Kanchi seer, with the result that he had to face such an embarrassment," VHP chief Ashok Singhal said outside the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, where he had gone to meet the head of the Ramjanmabhoomi Trust, Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhans, who was admitted on Sunday following a suspected heart attack.
"I have a grave suspicion that the prime minister's ill-advice led to the failure of the shankaracharya's mission.
"I am not surprised at the decision taken by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board to reject the seer's proposal. But what has pained me is the prime minister's virtual rejection of the shankaracharya's formula," he said.
Singhal, who had been criticising the shankaracharya for keeping the VHP out of the Ayodhya negotiations, said, "We have immense regard for Swami Jayendra Saraswati, who has been with us all along in the Ayodhya movement.
"Two decades back, when a local court ordered unlocking of the gates to the Ramjanmabhoomi, the Kanchi seer was in Ayodhya and right up to this day he is willing to do his bit in support of the Ayodhya movement."
Until last week, Singhal and his colleague Pravin Togadia had gone to the extent of accusing the shankaracharya of attempting to hijack the Ayodhya movement. They even said that being a Shaivite, the shankaracharya had no right to meddle in affairs relating to Lord Ram.