So, thirteen years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the disputed shrine again triggered a bout of "nationalist" hysterics in the saffron parivar. Old Ram bhakts like Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi dashed off to Ayodhya. L.K. Advani, still reeling under the impact of his failed image makeover, did pause to ponder. But three days after the terrorist strike, the charioteer, now older and wiser, too felt compelled to make his way to the temple town.
In Delhi, the moderate Jaswant Singh mouthed phrases such as "Hindu aastha" and sought the resignation of the Union home minister and the Uttar Pradesh CM even though the attack had been foiled. So shaken and stirred was the former external affairs minister that he equated the attack on "Ram lalla" with that on the Indian Parliament. "One is a temple of worship, the other the temple of democracy. Both are significant to our nation," he declared in his impeccable English.
The VHP, meanwhile, mouthed its all-too-familiar invective against Pakistan/ Muslims/terrorists. In Delhi, its activists had to be teargassed. Praveen Togadia, master of ceremonies of the high-decibel yell-without-pause-for-breath brigade, stormed out of a "top-secret" meeting with the RSS in Surat to fulminate about "jehadi designs against Hindus". Ashok Singhal too held an impromptu press briefing there to describe his "anguish and pain". (Strangely, laddoos were distributed by animated Bajrang Dal activists as soon as the VHP president finished speaking!)