Chennai: Continuing its aggressive posture against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on July 18 charged the party with "abandoning 'hindutva', for heading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre" and said it would not hesitate to confront any political party, which did not follow 'hindutva'.

VHP was for "saffronising" Indian politics and would not hesitate to oppose parties that stood in the way, VHP general secretary Pravin Togadia told a press conference.

He said only a legislation allowing a Ram temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya could solve the problem.

He said legislation was possible, even when a case for the ownership was pending before court. "Constitution did not prohibit legislations, on the issues pending before the courts," he said.

If the legislation was not passed, it would only expose the "double standards" of the government.

He said when Chandra Shekhar was Prime Minister, he took an initiative to solve the problem, but leaders of the minority community backed out. The leaders had also backed out when the Kanchi seer Sri Jayendra Saraswathi took an initiative recently to solve the dispute.

He said VHP would welcome any negotiated settlement if it was "unconditional".

Togadia denied the charge that VHP was raising the Ayodhya issue only during the elections. "We raised the issue in January 18, 2001, when there was no Lok Sabha or Assembly polls," he said.

He said Ram temple issue could never be an election issue, since it was a matter of faith. "Faith can never become an electoral issue," he said.

He said the NDA and VHP never had anything in common right from the beginning.

PTI