New Delhi: Hitting out at the Congress for raising the Ayodhya issue with unfailing regularity in every session of Parliament, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on July 22 said it was ready for a debate on it under Rule 193, which does not entail voting.

"We are ready for a discussion on the issue under Rule 193 in the Lok Sabha though it has been debated at least 20 times. Even though this "dadagiri" (bullying tactics) cannot be tolerated, we can have the debate," party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters after the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting.

"As a ritual the Congress raises the Ayodhya issue, holds the house to ransom and does not allow the ruling party to conduct regular business," he said.

Party president M Venkaiah Naidu told the meeting that there was no pressure on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to withdraw cases even though "by and large the cases against Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti were politically inspired."

Naidu said as BJP was a party with a difference, it felt that these cases need not be cancelled. He recalled that in 1980 Congress had withdrawn cases filed against Indira Gandhi on the basis of Shah Commission report.

Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asked members to take active part in Parliamentary Standing Committee meets and pursue the reports.

He told members that many times it appeared that they had not seen the reports, apparently referring to reports which did not find favour with the government.

PTI