Bandh fails to move people

A bandh call given by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to protest against the attack on the disputed structure in Ayodhya yielded no fire and even less heat.

In a rage, VHP and BJP activists attacked the VIP lounge at the Indore airport and were promptly booked for rioting in a restricted area. Public transport was off the roads in Orissa but educational institutions functioned normally.

Gujarat was exempt from the bandh on account of the floods in the state and in Uttar Pradesh, shops in some parts of the state downed their shutters. But on the whole, the bandh left most of India unmoved.

In Delhi, BJP chief LK Advani and other leaders courted arrest and the animosity between the VHP and the BJP appeared to have been significantly reduced.

Some of Advani's statements drew gleeful chortles from the Congress.

Criticising the BJP for attempting to gain "cheap political advantage" from Ayodhya events, spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan accused the BJP of trying to "rouse communal disharmony" through its protest call today and said the people deserved praise for suppressing the BJP's attempts to reap "political capital" out of a "serious situation".

"Advani has asked the nation to give a fitting reply to the terrorist attack. We request Advani to clarify what he means by a fitting reply. The people have already given a fitting reply to Advani by ignoring the BJP's call for protest," Natarajan said.

Natarajan also said the Congress was "happy" over the Allahabad High Court judgment that Advani and other leaders would have to face trial in the Babri masjid demolition case. "Advani was among the main persons who was responsible for the demolition of the mosque and should face trial for this," Natarajan said.

But a day after the killing of the attackers, there was no clarity on their identity or even which group they belonged to. Privately government officials conceded that it was not alertness on the part of security forces but mismanagement by the attackers and the sheer imbalance in fire power that led to the killing of the militants before they could do any more damage.

But Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil did hint that the attackers were not locals, by asserting that their agenda was to derail the Indo-Pak normalisation process. "Why did they come there? They wanted to disturb the existing harmony of the country. These attackers might have problem with the progress in the peace process between India and Pakistan," Patil said before leaving for Ayodhya to take stock of the situation.

Interestingly, UP Governor TV Rajeshwar, as well as a top source in the Prime Minister's Office said the central government did have prior information about the attack, deepening the controversy. Rajeshwar said the Intelligence Bureau and the Union home secretary had given a tip about it. But the state DGP said there was no "specific information".

"The IB and the Union home secretary had warned that terrorists can strike in Ayodhya," Rajeshwar said in Ayodhya. The governor said security forces did a commendable job in liquidating the militants in a short time and making sure that no harm was done to the make-shift temple.

State police chief Yashpal Singh told reporters in Ayodhya that information kept coming and considered regularly, but we had no specific information about terrorist strike. "There was also no point in getting drawn into unnecessary controversies," he added.

Rajeshwar also rejected a charge that the attack was reflective of a security lapse, saying one of the slain militants was a human bomb and the terrorists had blasted their way into the Ram janambhoomi complex. "Had the security forces not acted promptly, it (attack) could have been worse," the governor said.