Finally, VHP supporters contented themselves with a darshan of Ramlalla in small groups under government escort. Mr Ashok Singhal stood completely isolated in his sadhu's robes when he was arrested.

The sammelan flopping demonstrates four things. First, a determined state government can enforce law and order in Ayodhya without shedding blood. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had a specific mandate from the Allahabad High Court against a VHP meeting. The Centre too is legally obliged to protect the status of the land vested in it in 1993.

The BJP's national leadership was reluctant to destabilise Mr Yadav after he indicated a "moderate" approach. (This was reflected in allowing some 20-30,000 VHP supporters to enter Ayodhya after October 17 -- although even this could have been avoided).

Second, there is no support for the VHP's temple agenda in Ayodhya/Faizabad, leave alone elsewhere in UP and the Hindi heartland. Ayodhya's traders, mahants and sadhus joined hands against the VHP. The lead was taken by Mahant Gyan Das who assured Muslims of their safety. Bonds of friendship between Hindus and Muslims have been greatly strengthened in and around the town.

Third, a majority of the VHP's Ram-bhakts came from the non-Hindi speaking states -- half from Gujarat alone. Their total strength was only a fraction of the numbers mobilised 10 or 12 years ago.

Evidently, the temple movement is running out of steam-- and into conflict with India's judicial processes.

Finally, the VHP's "confrontationist" approach (NB: the BJP's term, not mine) is denting the image of the entire sangh parivar, including its political arm, the BJP, and the paterfamilias, the RSS.

The BJP sharply criticises the Parishad. In return, the VHP spews filthy abuse every week at the BJP, and even more important, at Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, accusing them of "capitulating" to secularism! The fact that Mr Vajpayee hasn't rebuffed the VHP has not enhanced his stature.

After the sammelan fiasco, the BJP and VHP are likely to drift further apart. The BJP's governmental wing will try to rein in the VHP. The VHP will try to resist this with hardline positions. The RSS will try to play the mediator.

Here lies the BJP's dilemma. It needs the Ayodhya movement politically. But it doesn't like its leadership, dominated by the fanatical Mr Singhal and Mr Togadia. The BJP wants to assert its overall political supremacy over the parivar. But it needs the VHP's cadres for the next, make-or-break, Parliamentary election.

The VHP, like every sangh parivar "front", has a well-defined function. Such "fronts" are said to number between 150 and 300, and are active among traders, trade unions, women and Adivasis.

Some, like the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, have an economic policy that's is fiercely nationalist (but strongly anti-internationalist), and opposed to the BJP's globalisation agenda. This enables them to occupy the opposition space, edging out the real Centre-Left opposition to neoliberalism.

Others, like Vidya Bharati, which runs 20,000 schools, are crucial to recruiting children. Some, like the Bajrang Dal, are composed of modern-day storm-troopers who use physical violence to intimidate opponents. Their goons burn churches, mosques and people -- as happened to the Graham Staines and two little sons.

The VHP's function is threefold: politicise disaffected sadhus; mobilise people on emotive, seemingly "religious" issues like the temple; and raise funds for the sangh combine, especially from North America and Britain. The third function is important, indeed irreplaceable.

The VHP has countless religious associates based in the US, UK and Canada, which collect huge sums from non-resident Indians. Some collect in the name of earthquake relief or "development" assistance.

An example is the India Development and Relief Fund, headed by Mr Bhishma K. Agnihotri, long-standing RSS activist, and India's "second ambassador" to the US. Mr Agnihotri's anomalous status -- the US doesn't recognise him -- his communal views, and his demands on the Indian exchequer, have generated controversy.

However, what puts him in especially uncomplimentary light is IDRF's fund collection, a portion of which probably financed last year's violence in Gujarat. A US-based Indian secularist group has identified IDRF donors from US official records. They include software giants like Sun Microsystems and CISCO.

This investigation thoroughly exposes the nefarious and genocidal ends to which the VHP helps the sangh combine. The BJP has never been fully distinguishable from the VHP's nasties. The Gujarat pogrom was the joint work of the two.

The supreme irony is that the sangh parivar has nothing to do with religion in the real, deep sense. It denies Hinduism's richly syncretic, plural nature and puts it into a rigid upper-caste-oriented, intolerant frame, amenable to political exploitation.

It doesn't even have multiple stories of Ram, including narratives that show him in a sensitive, kindly light, as a person who can be remorseful about his complex relationship with Seeta. Their Ram is a warrior God, angry, militant, out on punitive expeditions. This Ram can behead Shambuka merely because he is a shudra who has dared to learn the shastras.

Hindutva advocates have no respect for any religious sensibilities. As an agnostic, I can admire Mother Teresa's epochal social work, without sharing her faith, or believing that she really performed "miracles".

The RSS cannot. It churlishly declared her beatification a "Christian conspiracy"; the Pope honoured her for "creating 10,000 priests in Mizoram" and contributing "50,000 Indian nuns" to the Church.

This speaks of despicable meanness of spirit -- and failure to see anything good in any religion other than the sangh's dried-up version of Hinduism. It also speaks of paranoia about non-Hindus: "all they want to do is propagate their religion and wipe out Hinduism from this country".

Such sick minds are unfit to lead. It's India's tragedy that the RSS is the chief leader of its present leaders. We urgently need a leadership change!

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.