The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday sought the ruling Congress's cooperation for a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute instead of waiting for a judicial verdict.

Addressing the BJP's national executive on the opening day of its three-day meeting here, BJP chief L. K. Advani said there should be no further delay in resolving the "sensitive" Ayodhya issue.

Advani's appeal for the Congress's cooperation came shortly after he accused it and its Left allies of conspiring to slowly but systematically erase the Hindu ethos of the country and to obfuscate the basic Hindu identity of India's culture and civilisation.

He maintained that the arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, who had last year held negotiations between Hindus and Muslims on the Ayodhya issue, was an assault on Hinduism.

"Hurting of Hindu sentiments and denial of legitimate Hindu interests have been made the ultimate and sole criterion of one's commitment to secularism," he observed and said the pontiff's arrest had "jolted Hindu society like no other event in recent times has."

But he urged the Congress and all other parties to "see the compelling logic and the undeniable desirability of a negotiated settlement and contribute to the firming up of a national consensus on how to resolve the Ayodhya issue soon."

The BJP supports the demand of Hindu groups for building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site of the Babri mosque, which was razed by Hindu fanatics Dec 6, 1992.

Advani said there was a growing body of opinion in the country for resolving the issue at the earliest. Even the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has endorsed the demand for a negotiated settlement of the issue.

"I do not think that any right-thinking person can object to this stand," Advani said, adding that the BJP would fight to preserve the secular fabric of the nation but take on all pseudo-secular forces.

The party's national executive will discuss the strategy for the upcoming elections in three states and prepare a document on the tasks that lie before it.

--Indo-Asian News Service