From: bala@ulysses.att.com (Bala Krishnamurthy)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Videotape shows destruction planned?/BJP rally
Keywords: BJP Vajpayee Videotape rally
Date: 20 Dec 92 16:53:54 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill

apnews reports:
	   NEW DELHI, India (AP) _ Police used bamboo clubs and tear gas to
break up a rally by thousands of Hindu nationalists Sunday and
briefly detained a leader of India's largest opposition party.
	   It was the biggest show of strength by the party, Bharatiya
Janata, since Hindu militants destroyed a Muslim shrine on Dec. 6
in Ayodhya and ensuing riots between Hindus and Muslims killed
1,200 people.
	   Police have accused the nationalist Hindu party of fomenting
India's most recent religious troubles.
	   Evidence mounted that the demolition of the mosque had been
planned, and was not a spontaneous act by a frenzied mob as
originally believed.
	   The Bharatiya Party has claimed its leaders tried but were
unable to stop thousands of impassioned Hindus who believe the site
is the birthplace of a Hindu god.
	   Area police chief Asad Farooqui said he refused permission for
the party's march Sunday because he feared new violence.
	   Atal Behari Vajpayee, one of the party's top leaders, was taken
into custody and later released after he led about 200 people from
Bharatiya Janata headquarters toward a stadium square where the
rally was to be held.
	   Vajpayee said he would begin a hunger strike to protest the
police tactics.
	   Police later used tear gas and bamboo staves to push back and
disperse an estimated 1,500 party supporters who tried to break
through a security cordon around the stadium, Press Trust of India
reported.
	   Witnesses said police fought an hour-long battle with Hindus who
were hurling stones at public buses and at the police lines. No
injuries were reported.
	   At the same time, thousands more Hindus gathered outside the
party's headquarters. A reporter for the Pioneer newspaper said
police detained as many as 5,000 people, loaded them onto buses and
released them away from the scene.
	   Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao cracked down on the opposition
party and its supporters after Hindu zealots stormed and razed the
mosque in Ayodhya.
	   Vajpayee, a former foreign minister, is the most moderate of the
opposition leaders. In recent interviews, he admitted differences
with the party over the destruction of the mosque, but he also
criticized the government.
	   Sunday's demonstration was called to protest the arrest of two
other top party leaders, the dismissal of three party-led state
governments and the outlawing of three radical Hindu groups.
	   Meanwhile, a videotape of the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque
indicated that the demolition was planned.
	   The six-hour film was shot from a nearby rooftop. Though it was
unclear who made the film, a screening was sponsored Saturday for
reporters by Defense Minister Sharad Pawar.
	   The tape showed 25 to 30 youths initially crossed police
barricades to invade the mosque and began hammering at it with
pickaxes and crowbars.
	   For the first 15 minutes, only a few dozen people scrambled onto
the three domes of the 16th century building, but police made no
attempt to remove them.
	   Only then did thousands of people join what some reports
described as the professional demolition crew already at work.
	   Earlier, newspapers carried reports and photographs of Hindu
extremists practicing with grappling hooks and ropes the day before
the mosque was destroyed.
	   Also Sunday, Nobel laureate Mother Teresa prayed for peace and
harmony at the New Delhi memorial to Mohandas K. Gandhi, the leader
of India's peaceful independence movement.