Lucknow, June 3 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to keep the Ayodhya temple issue out of its political agenda.

 
 Replying to a pointed query on the Ayodhya temple issue, BJP national spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons here Friday: "Ram temple is not an election issue for us, but at the same time we cannot ignore how close it is to the cultural ethos of this country."
 
 "Now that the (Allahabad) High Court has given its verdict on the issue and none of the three judges on the special bench disputed the fact that the site of the temple was the birthplace of (Hindu god) Ram, it is high time that all political parties sink their differences on the issue and all communities join hands to pave the way for building a grand temple at that place."
 
 Party president Nitin Gadkari too preferred to attach more importance to issues like corruption, terrorism and India-Pakistan relations.
 
 He slammed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for being neck deep in corruption and highlighted its failures and questioned its controversial decisions.
 
 Referring to the recent big bash thrown by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to mark the  second anniversary of UPA-2, Gadkari asked sarcastically: "I fail to understand what the celebration was all about - was it about scaling new heights in corruption, or was it meant to rejoice because foreign investments have dropped and unemployment is on the rise?"
 
 He said: "Never before so many top leaders connected with the ruling dispensation have been lodged together in Tihar Jail for their misdeeds."
 
 Emphasising that the BJP’s goal was to rid India of hunger and corruption, Gadkari said: “I have always been of the view that we must not allow politics to be made a source of income.”
 
 He called upon party workers to fan out across the country and mobilise mass support for a five-point anti-corruption programme.
 
 This programme includes appointment of an independent Lokpal (ombudsman) to keep a vigil against corruption in high places; setting up of a National Judicial Commission to regulate appointment of judges and to keep a check on corruption in the higher judiciary; open voting in the election of members to the upper house of legislature in states; enactment of law for forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth of public servants and a legislation to ban the entry of criminals into electoral politics.”