Court must follow due process, don’t polarise issue, says Oppn

NEWDELHI/MUMBAI/HYDERABAD:SEVERAL opposition parties said on Monday they would honour the Supreme Court’s decision in the Babri Masjid-ram Janmabhoomi dispute and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to use the sensitive issue to polarise the electorate.

Hours after the top court deferred the hearing into the title suit to January, the Congress called for restraint without linking the issue to “votebank politics”. Former finance minister P Chidambaram dismissed allegations by BJP leader Vinay Katiyar that the issue was being delayed “under pressure” from the Congress. “Well, this is a familiar story. Every five years before elections, the BJP tries to polarise views on Ram Mandir,” he said. The Samajwadi Party said its stand on the issue was that the dispute should either be decided by an out-of-court settlement or all parties should respect the court’s decision.

“Our stand remains unchanged. But it is the BJP and RSS that do not respect the court and the constitution. We have faith in the court and if it has decided to adjourn the hearing till January and if it has refused to UP government’s plea of early hearing request, then it must have decided things on their merit. We won’t like to comment on it,” said Rajendra Chaudhary, the authorised spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party. His comments came amid growing clamour from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for a central legislation in the winter session of Parliament to facilitate the construction of a Ram temple. But opposition leaders described these demands as attempts to communalise the issue.

All India Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said his party would honour the SC judgment of the Supreme Court bench and challenged the government to bring a law or ordinance. “Let them do it, if they can, as they are in power,” he said. “When the Chief Justice of India has the considered view that an appropriate bench would decide on the Babri Masjid issue, what else can we do? Uttar Pradesh government wanted the judgment in November, but the SC bench said it would be done in January. We have to honour it,” he added. The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP, said that the deferment by the Supreme Court was “expected” as there are other priorities before the court.

“Whatever order the SC would pass is a different thing, but the government can go ahead with an ordinance. The kind of mandate on which the government has come to power, the BJP has that responsibility. And since it has the majority they should opt for ordinance. Shiv Sena has been reminding the BJP this because we are responsible to the people of India, their religion, their faith. The onus is on the government to perform and it is time to go for that (ordinance),” said Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena secretary Anil Desai.

Party chief Uddhav Thackeray is scheduled to reach Ayodhya on November 25 for a “darshan” at the makeshift temple that exists at the disputed site currently. AYODHYA: As the sun rose over Karsevakpuram in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town on Monday morning, there was excitement in the air. Many of the Hindu saints and leaders who live and work in the neighbourhood were confident the Supreme Court would grant an early hearing in the Babri Masjid-ram Janmabhoomi dispute and give a boost to the decades-old campaign for a Ram temple. “It is now or never,” they told HT a day earlier.

But in a matter of five minutes, their spirits were punctured as the top court brushed aside requests for an early hearing. Any resolution to the dispute is unlikely before the general election expected in April-may 2019.

“We were happy that finally daily hearing in the case would start from today (Monday). But all our hopes for a judgment in the case have been shattered. For how long will the Hindu community wait for the court’s verdict?” said Sharad Sharma, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) regional spokesperson based at Karsevakpuram. Often called the nerve centre of the Ram temple movement, Karsevakpuram is a sprawling campus that hosts the offices of several Hindu organisations, including VHP and the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas.

It also houses a prototype of the temple the organisations want to build, guarded over by an old kar sevak who was present when a mob brought down the 16th century Babri Masjid in 1992.

A stone’s throw away is a workshop where volunteers and workers toil away for hours chiseling massive slabs of stone and wood into ready-to-move building blocks for the temple – a project that has been going on for more than a decade. Annu Bhai Sompura, in-charge of the karyashala (workshop) that receives devotees from across the country who offer their prayers to the stone slabs, said his workers were left dejected. “Here at the karyashala, workers were hopeful that soon stones carved by us, and lying unused for several years, will be finally used for construction of Ram Mandir. But the court’s decision has left us dejected,” he added.

Our stand remains unchanged. BJP and RSS don’t respect the court. We have faith in the court. It must have decided things on their merit RAJENDRA CHAUDHARY, Samajwadi Party spokesperson