Outside Parliament too, the Bharatiya Janata Party sought to cool down the controversy created by Delhi Government's proposal and said that the plan would be shelved.

Delhi's Excise Minister Rajender Gupta had wanted churches knocked off the list of religious places around which liquor shops are not allowed to come up under excise rules. His argument was that wine was served in Church premises.

The Prime Minister was responding to concern expressed by CPM member Suresh Kurup in the Lok Sabha. Vajpayee said the Government respected the sentiments of the Christian community and was opposed to any kind of restrictions being imposed on it.

Raising the issue during the zero hour, Kurup and A C Jose (Cong) criticised the Delhi Government's movetowards denotification of churches as places of worship.

The members said, ``Wine is considered sacred by Christians and symbolises the blood of Christ'' and alleged that the move was not out of ignorance and that it had been deliberately initiated as part of its drive against minorities. The members accused the BJP government in New Delhi of attempting to "trample" upon the sentiments of the Christians.

The BJP admitted that there had been ``some misunderstanding'' regarding the decision to denotify churches and indicated that the decision would be shelved.

Talking to news persons here, party general secretary Venkaiah Naidu said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had given an assurance that steps would be taken to remove the misgiving among members of the community.

Naidu said the proposal of the Delhi government was made in good faith and it would see that it is dropped. ``I am sorry my political opponents are going to be disappointed and their disinformation campaign would receive a setback,'' hesaid.

Naidu charged the CPM of whipping up communal tension saying that the party chief whip in Kerala assembly had made ``derogatory and damaging'' statement on the floor of the House on Congress leader A K Antony seeking the blessings of Mata Anandamayee.

He said it was after vociferous demands were made that he expressed regret, though Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar said there was no need for doing so. Naidu said this showed the double standards of the Marxists.