Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh today warned that the country is
heading towards a Bosnia-type situation and demanded a joint session
of Parliament to discuss the agenda set by Sangh parivar hawks.
A joint session would send out a message that politicians across the
country are united and determined to thwart the VHP, he said.

Singh slammed home minister L.K. Advani's bid to play down the
Gujarat riots by comparing them with the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in
1984. The Gujarat riots were similar to the ethnic cleansing which
led to international intervention in Bosnia, he said. "What is
happening in Bosnia is happening here," Singh added.

"The Indian nationhood is under attack. The sacrifice of the freedom
movement is under threat from those who did not participate in it,"
he said. The need of the hour was for the "secular and right-thinking
people to organise and isolate the minuscule minority spreading
communal poison".

Singh said fundamentalists are attacking the Constitution and the
Supreme Court. "Arundhati Roy was sent to jail for one slogan. Why is
the court not taking note of their (VHP hardliners) statements? Are
we going to stay a Republic?" he asked.

Singh said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress president
Sonia Gandhi, CPM leader Jyoti Basu, Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu
Naidu, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and other top
leaders should come together to take on religious fundamentalists. He
said he had made such a suggestion to Vajpayee but declined to
divulge his reaction.

Regretting that a majority of the 80 per cent Hindus was being
bulldozed by the VHP, he said meetings of all legislators should be
held to send out a message that there was an alternate force in the
country.

The former Prime Minister criticised the move to involve "sadhus and
babas" in the mediation efforts on Ayodhya. "I had told (former
Rajasthan chief minister and BJP leader) Bhairon Singh Sekhawat not
to involve them. You won't be able to control them. How can you
control people who don't listen to their parents?" he said.

Singh said he took up the matter with some "allies" but refused to
disclose their names.

"We talk of terrorism as the basis of religious fundamentalism. How
can we face the world when we are practising terrorism in Gujarat,"
he asked. Referring to the ISI-conspiracy theory behind the Godhra
train carnage, Singh said even if the ISI was involved, the reaction
of the fundamentalists had only helped their design.

Singh opposed the suggestion of handing over the acquired land in
Ayodhya to the VHP or the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas for temple
construction. In that case, he said, some land should be given to the
Muslims for namaaz.

"Why (should) we be selective in giving government property. We
should not get into it. How can you distinguish one religion from
another in a secular state?"