Word: ayodhya
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...decade ago, Hindu-Muslim strife over the disputed holy site at Ayodhya helped propel India's current ruling party from the political margins to the corridors of power. Now that same strife threatens to topple the government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee...
...Seventy people were killed in Gujarat province on Thursday, as Hindu mobs attacked Muslims and torched a mosque and other Islamic facilities. The violence came as retaliation for Wednesday's firebombing by Muslims of a train carrying Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya. Fifty-eight people, many of them women and children, died in that attack, fueling outrage that threatens to spark a new wave of communal bloodletting throughout India...
...Ayodhya is at the epicent of communal hostility stoked by Hindu nationalists in defiance of modern India's founding tradition of secular tolerance. In 1992, the city became the focus of the worst communal violence since India's partition 45 years earlier, when 2,000 people died in clashes after Hindu nationalists - including members of what is now the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - tore down the 16th century Babri mosque. Hindus claim the mosque had originally been built on the site of a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu deity Lord Rama. Ever since then, the Hindu nationalist...
...Vajpayee is playing a delicate political game. And that's taking India into another dangerous phase, where the [ruling Bharatiya Janata party] is revealing its hand, trying to exploit Hindu nationalist sentiments around the Ayodhya issue. Some observers believe that he may be doing this as something of a distraction for his supporters, trying to create political space for himself to push through tough economic measures, which he desperately needs to do. The government is basically bankrupt, and India is facing an economic slowdown. We're heading back into a terrible mess, but in a democracy as politically fractured...
...Another explanation is that his party faces a tough fight next year in the all-important state elections in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, which is considered a key indicator in national politics. Right now his party may lose its grip on the state, which is where Ayodhya is located. And some believe that he may be trying to energize the BJP's base by reviving the issue. But it's a dangerous game, not least because his coalition allies in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu depend heavily on Muslim support, which Vajpayee's statement will alienate...