But the moment, she says, is finally right for a solution. And it requires the Manmohan Singh government to take the lead. Because “I think the time when we are not in power is the time to do it. If there is a BJP government, others will not be restrained, even our own workers will not be restrained. Muslims will not listen to us. They will listen to those who they feel are on their side. The BJP cannot find a way out on the temple issue, but Manmohan Singh can.” She has been talking to Muslims, she says, and they want a solution — “but not through us”.

“I have great respect for Manmohan Singh” says Bharti, “I may oppose him ideologically but I really appreciate him.”

The Manmohan Singh government, she says, must revive the process begun and abandoned during the regimes of V P Singh and Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s last phase in government in 2003. The government, she says, must guide the issue onto a “non-political platform”.