Singapore: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on February 4 said the Ayodhya issue has to be resolved either through a dialogue between parties or a court order.

"Government is of the view that this is a matter which needs to be resolved either by mutual talks or a court order," Advani, who is on a three-day visit to Singapore, said while replying to a question after delivering a lecture on security and development organised by the Institute of South East Asian Studies.

His remarks assume significance in the light of Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) demand that the government hand over land in Ayodhya to it for temple construction by this month end.

Describing communal violence in Gujarat as a "strong reaction" to the Godhra carnage, Advani said Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) landslide victory in the state Assembly elections was a result of the "campaign of calumny" unleashed against it by the Opposition.

"The state government suppressed these riots using force… about 200 persons were killed in police firing. This fact was disregarded… and a campaign of calumny was unleashed against the government of the state," he said when asked whether Godhra and its aftermath pointed towards the emergence of Hindu extremism and whether India would become "less secular".

"The ghastly tragedy in Godhra created a strong reaction, which led to the unseemly and indefensible incidents and similar killings in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the state… Both (Godhra and the following riots) are indefensible," Advani said, adding that such riots have earlier taken place in other parts of the country as well.

While it was known that BJP would once again emerge victorious in the polls, "Its landslide victory was a reaction to this campaign of calumny – a protest vote against those who unleashed such a campaign," Advani said and asserted that there was no question of dilution of the secular basis of the Indian polity.

To a question on the Ayodhya dispute and his 'rath yatra' in the early 1990s, he said it was not correct that the 'rath yatra' had resulted in communal violence and also quoted a Polish author's book in this respect. "This Polish author, who studied Ayodhya in depth, has recorded that not a single incident occurred during the 'rath yatra'."

"In those days, it was the Mandal Commission report and not the Ayodhya movement" that had led to the incidents, Advani said.

PTI