"After all, the Congress party's defeat in the 1989 parliamentary elections was a major triumph for India's democratic forces. The gains of this victory needed to be consolidated. Towards this end, I took an important initiative at a function in New Delhi on 10 August, while releasing Koenraad Elst's book Ram Janmabhoomi vs Babri Masji: A case study in Hindu Muslim conflict. I offered to the Muslim leaders that I would personally request leaders of the VHP to relinquish their demand on the Hindu shrines in Mathura and Varanasi if the Muslim claim over Ramjanmabhoomi was voluntarily withdrawn, paving the way for the construction of the Ram temple. I was deeply disappointed when Muslim leaders rejected this offer."