Saturday, July 30 2005 20:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) talks of reviving the Ayodhya movement, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convener George Fernandes today (July 30, 2005) regretted that such problems were being raised at a time when Bihar was 'burning'.

The Janata Dal(JD)United (U) President also made it clear that the temple issue will not have any impact in the coming elections to the Bihar assembly.

Without naming BJP or Advani, he said, "Some people are bothered about Ayodhya and some others about some other issues but Bihar is burning and nobody seems to be bothered about it."

He was speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a seminar on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector.

However, JD (U) sources later clarified that Fernandes was referring to different issues being raised in the media.

The JD (U) leader asserted that the Ram Temple issue would have no impact on the upcoming Bihar elections, as it was not being fought on any religious issues.

He said elections would be fought on Lalu's "Misrule and loot of the state. Even senior officers have now accused that governor's rule is no different from Lalu's rule."

The NDA convenor said the Ram temple issue should be resolved through negotiations failing which the court decision should be accepted by one and all.

"There cannot be a legislation on such issues," he said dismissing the Sangh Parivar's suggestion for a law in this regard.