Moves are afoot to defuse one of India's most explosive religious flashpoints, the Ayodhya temple-mosque row, through talks between Hindu and Muslim religious leaders.
"Talks are going on between the Hindu and Muslim religious leaders towards solving the Ayodhya issue," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters Tuesday.
"Neither the government nor the political parties are ... involved in these talks. Important leaders from both sides are talking."
Asked about vehement denials that talks were ongoing by the Muslim Personal Law Board, a nodal body concerned with Indian Muslim interests, Naqvi said, "The reactions of these people are only natural. But the talks are going on and they are serious."
Naqvi refused to give the names of leaders or groups involved in the talks.
"When the dialogue reaches a decisive stage, all the parties will be involved," the leader added.
Earlier, government and political sources had told AFP that over the past few months, secret parleys have been held between leaders of Hindus and Muslims, "and a very large, influential group of Muslim leadership is moving forward."
The Indian Express newspaper, in a report on Tuesday, said prominent Hindu pontiff Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, a key interlocutor on the issue, flew Sunday to Lucknow and held talks with "community leaders" for an out-of-court settlement of the issue.
The report said a key player in these parleys is the Central Sunni Waqf Board, which is an original claimant of the patch of land in Ayodhya where the controversial mosque stood.
If this body withdrew its court case to reclaim the land, an out-of-court settlement was possible, the report said.
"The two sides are working towards an honourable solution," Saraswati told reporters on Monday.
"Until now, only informal discussion had been going on. After a few days, work will start in written form," he added.
The seer hinted that Hindus and Muslims may soon jointly submit an agreement to the Supreme Court towards resolving the issue.
The Ayodhya imbroglio, which has defied a solution for more than five decades, revolves around a claim by Hindus that the Babri mosque was built in the northern city of Ayodyha in the 16th century by Mughul emperor Babur after destroying a temple to mark the birthplace of their god Ram.
For decades, a low-profile campaign to reclaim the land was run by some Hindu outfits but in mid-1980s the BJP took it over.
Within a few years, the rights to the land became a polarising, nationwide issue.
The BJP's vigorous campaign for rebuilding the temple led to the eventual demolition of the Babri mosque by mobs of Hindu zealots on December 6, 1992, which in turn sparked nationwide riots that left thousands dead.
Solutions to the Ayodhya imbrogilio have since been fruitlessly worked and reworked at various levels, and eventually wound up in the law courts.
A court recently ordered that land beneath the ruins of the mosque be dug up to determine whether a temple had once existed on the site, a process which is still ongoing.
A spate of talks have concluded without success, although the most recent initiative -- termed "track II" by political observers -- is by far the most serious.
According to a tentative plan being mulled by both sides, if Muslims agree to Hindus building a temple on the site of the razed mosque, they could be given land to build a mosque at an alternative site, five kilometers (three miles) from the temple's sanctum sanctorium.
Another 100 mosques in the area that closed in the wake of the Babri mosque demolition could be reopened.
Members of the Muslim leadership, the sources said, were willing to move forward if talks proceeded along these lines.
"They have said if these assurances are given, they are willing to talk further," one source said.