Ram temple issue: ABAP to hold talks with AIMPLB in Ayodhya next month

Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), the apex governing body of 13 Akharas of the Hindu saints in the country, has decided to hold a meeting with All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) members over the Ram temple issue in Ayodhya instead of Lucknow.

The meeting will be held next month in an effort to settle the dispute out of court.

The date will be finalised after a meeting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who is expected to visit Allahabad on May 29 for review of government schemes. ABAP president Swami Narendra Giri is expected to meet the CM during the latter’s visit, on the Ram Temple issue.

Earlier, the ABAP had decided to hold a meeting with the Personal Law Board members in this regard in Lucknow in May, but it had to be postponed after a conversation with CM Yogi, said Swami Narendra Giri while talking to Hindustan Times. He said following the proposed meeting in May, the ABAP had also held a meeting of the top saints of all the 13 Akharas at the Juna Akhara in Allahabad on April 30 to chalk out future course of action. But the schedule of the meeting had to be changed following Yogi’s visit, he added.

According to Giri, the ABAP was initiating the step following the appeal of the Supreme Court, which has urged Hindus and Muslims to settle the Ram temple issue out of court amicably. “ABAP feels that it is essential for representatives of both the religious bodies to hold a meeting on the sensitive issue at least once because running away from it will only complicate the matter further,” he shared.

The president said that efforts were being made to get a date from Personal Law Board members. Besides, the representatives of all the 13 Akharas had been intimated about the proposed meeting in Ayodhya, he added.

“We are also in touch with the main litigant of Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid so that he could be present in the meeting,” said Giri. As per him, late Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in Babri Masjid-Ram Janamabhoomi case who died in July last year at the age of 95 years, also wanted to resolve the issue amicably.

“A few months before his death, Ansari had spoken to me and said that it would be good if the dispute could be settled amicably,” he shared.