JAIPUR AUG. 3. The 2002 Ramon Magsaysay elect for Emergent Leadership, Sandeep Pandey, has termed the communal divide after the Gujarat killings as the greatest challenge before the nation. "All the right thinking people are ashamed of what happened in Gujarat. The saddest part is that the killings are being glorified. The perpetrators are trying to make capital out of it,'' Dr. Pandey, also an anti-nuke activist who led a 1,500-km peace march after Pokhran blast, said.

Participating in a Meet the Press programme here, Dr. Pandey said that the country was passing through a very difficult phase. "No Government in the past has done as much damage to the country as the National Democratic Alliance coalition at the Centre. It is worse than the Emergency days. Sadly, there is no Jaiprakash Narain to lead the nation,'' Dr. Pandey who hails from Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh and runs the NGO, Asha, said.

Dr. Pandey was in the Rajasthan capital to participate in the two-day convention of Gandhian and Sarvodaya activists. His previous visit to the State was to protest against a move to bury nuclear waste near Pokhran in Jaisalmer district.

In a scathing attack on the NDA Government, Dr. Pandey said the coalition at the Centre failed on all the fronts the Sangh Parivar professed a principled and nationalist stance. The Government failed in swadeshi as it allowed the entry of foreign companies in a big way. Those in the Government took money in arms deals and even went for foreign direct investment in the media, he charged.

``They have brought the nation to the brink. The old timers tell me that the situation in the country after the Gujarat carnage was similar to that of partition days,'' Dr. Pandey said.

Dr. Pandey spoke passionately on improving relations between India and Pakistan and finding a solution to the Ayodhya problem.

He castigated the nuclear weaponisation of the two neighbours as both a "mindless and useless'' exercise. He also claimed that Gandhian values still inspired the youth of this country.

``If the Kashmir people want to be free there should not be any problem in granting freedom to them,'' he said.

However, he felt that various groups and leaders in Kashmir should be consulted in knowing the mind of the Kashmiris.

As for Ayodhya, he was of the opinion that there would be a solution to the problem in the near future.