Returning from a visit to the Ayodhya workshop where parts of the proposed temple are being constructed, a team of Left MPs said the exercise was meant to whip up passions and put pressure on the judiciary. The government should take appropriate action to ensure that the judicial process was not subverted once again.

Communist Party of India MP Gurudas Dasgupta said Left MPs will meet President K R Narayanan on the issue when Parliament resumes its session in July.

Dasgupta dismissed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's assurance to Parliament that the construction will begin only with judicial approval.The assurance meant little with the activity taking place near the disputed site and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP) declaring that the temple will only come up there, he said. RSS and VHP leaders were supervising the construction work.

Work on the temple project is also on in Rajasthan, he said reminding that the state too was under BJP-rule. The Left team also included MPs from the CPI(M), RSP and Forward Bloc. Dasgupta said the construction work was being done according to a model of the proposed temple on display at the workshop. A large stone cutting machine has recently been installed to speed up the work. It has its own generator to maintain power supply. The CPI leader said the idea of going ahead with the construction even before the court judgement is guided by the political consideration of keeping the issue alive. Refuting Home Minister L K Advani's assertion that the workshop was three kms from the disputed site, he maintained it was only 1.5 km away.