Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal's second proposal to resolve the Ayodhya dispute, sent to the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, makes no mention of the Kashi and Mathura disputes, according to a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh source in New Delhi.
The AIMPLB received a letter from the Kanchi seer on Friday addressed to chairman Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadwi in Lucknow and outlining Jayendra Saraswati's new proposal to resolve the Ayodhya dispute.
The letter is expected to be opened on Saturday.
The shankaracharya's first proposal had reportedly raised the hackles of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
A government source told rediff.com that the VHP was shaken when it learnt of a rough draft of the seer's first proposal. Not only had the organisation, which sees itself as the voice of Hindus, been ignored in the bid to find a settlement to the dispute, the shankaracharya had mentioned the possibility of giving up the claims on similarly disputed property in Kashi and Mathura.
When RSS chief K S Sudershan learnt of this, he took a firm stand. As the RSS source explained to rediff.com, "We don't want Ayodhya to divide the Hindu undivided Sangh family."
Sudershan reportedly spoke at length to the shankaracharya and told him that while the RSS is not opposed to a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, it will never agree to give up the claims to Kashi and Mathura as a compromise.
The source said Sudershan also explained to the seer that the VHP could not be marginalised in the attempt to find a solution to the Ayodhya dispute.
Union Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi also intervened and spoke to Jayendra Saraswati not to send the AIMPLB a proposal that is unacceptable to the Sangh Parivar.
According to a senior VHP leader, the Kanchi seer's first draft contained three major suggestions. Hindus would abandon their claim to the disputed sites in Kashi and Mathura. In return, Muslims would allow the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. And the government would throw open to Muslims some 100 ancient mosques currently under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India and also contribute more than Rs 10 crore to build a grand new mosque in Ayodhya, 5-7km away from the disputed site.
But so strong was the pressure mounted by Sangh leaders that the rough draft was never completed and the seer sent a second, revised proposal to Lucknow.
The VHP leader said the third part of the latest act in the Ayodhya drama will begin on Sunday when Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Defence Minister George Fernandes are expected to fly to Kanchi to meet the shankaracharya. "It indicates that Prime Minister Vajpayee is putting his entire weight behind the seer's proposal," he said.
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