Raipur: In a balancing act towards the Sangh Parivar on the opening day of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive, the party on July 18 virtually ruled out the possibility of enacting a legislation for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and raked up the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin but in the process did a flip-flop.

Having promised a restive Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) last week that it will consider their demand for a legislation in the wake of failure of negotiations on Ayodhya, BJP president M Venkiah Naidu said in his presidential address that hindutva was the soul of India but it could not be an election issue.

"Nor can hindutva be projected as a narrow religious concept. We are committed to secularism but are opposed to pseudo-secularism and appeasement for garnering minority votes."

In an obvious reference to the Sangh Parivar demand, Naidu said, "We are proud of our ideology. Do not hesitate to take a stand on any issue, but remember that we are living a coalition a government and there is no question of thrusting our agenda on any partner."

Raking up the issue of Gandhi's foreign origin, party general secretary and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "We have no problem with Congress making Sonia Gandhi or Pervez Musharraf as its president. But having her as Prime Minister is an issue linked to the country's national interest and security."

"Any person born on this soil would be more sensitive and responsible towards self-respect and security of this country," Naqvi said.

His remarks created a flutter that brought Law Minister Arun Jaitley to the media centre to clarify that Naqvi did not mean that.

Jaitley said the issue of Constitutional office-holders being citizens of India was a political issue and the party believes the person should be one with experience, ability and capacity to lead the country.

PTI