BJP outlines three ways to resolve Ram Mandir issue

Accusing Islamabad of pursuing double standards, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said Pakistan cannot simultaneously talk of peaceful relations with India and carry out a proxy war against the country.

"Pakistan, which talks of peaceful relations with India on the one hand, is carrying out a proxy war with its neighbour on the other. This depicts the double standards of Pakistan," said BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

Asserting that New Delhi wanted cordial ties with Islamabad, the new BJP chief said Pakistan will have to stop its 'vigorous support' to militancy if it really wanted to improve relations with India.

"If Pakistan whole-heartedly wants better relations with India, then it must stop vigorously supporting militancy and militant outfits on its soil," he said.

Advising both India and Pakistan to cut down their defence budgets, he said the two countries should focus instead on combating poverty and ushering in development.

Talking about the BJP's flagship Ram Temple issue, he said the party's main agenda remained unchanged and added that there could be three ways of resolving the issue.

One, by negotiation between the two religious groups involved, two by introducing a bill in Parliament and the third option was to wait for the final court verdict, he said. Asked about the re-organisation of the party, he said he had recently taken over as party president and it would not be appropriate to say anything on this issue.

Holding the ruling United Progressive Alliance responsible for the rising prices of essential commodities, Gadkari said it was a result of the Centre's wrong economic policies.

Terming UPA's economic policies as 'horrible', he said they were the root cause of rising food prices. "India had double digit inflation in 2008, went into deflation of 1 per cent in August 2009 and now once again in December 2009, inflation has reached 7.31 per cent", he said.

He said the BJP had chalked out a month-long agitation programme including sit-ins, demonstrations, protest marches and rallies, to be launched from January 18, to raise its voice against price rise.