VHP, RSS cannot speak on Ayodhya: Kanchi seer

Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati is peeved with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

"No Hindu organisation, including the VHP and the RSS, has any authority to speak on the Ayodhya dispute," he said in Coimbatore on Monday.

"I am the only representative and the chief negotiator of the Hindus," he said.

Jayendra Saraswati also did not approve of the VHP setting the deadline of February 22 for the Centre to hand over the 'undisputed land'. "It is a kind of pressure politics to make things happen," he said.

The seer observed that the Bharatiya Janata Party is not practising communal politics, as is being made out.

"The very nature of the coalition government [at the Centre] does not allow for the BJP to play communal politics," he said adding, "politics and religion are different."

The Shankaracharya's views assume significance as the opposition has decided to corner the government during the budget session of Parliament, which begins on Tuesday.

The VHP-sponsored Dharam Sansad in New Delhi will be held next week.

The Shankaracharya, who is playing an active role in finding a settlement to the vexed issue, is working with local Hindu and Muslim groups in Ayodhya.

Last year the VHP had withdrawn its consent for him to act as their negotiator. During the seer's recent visit to Delhi, VHP working president Ashok Singhal had declared that the organisation is not bound by the Shankaracharya's views.