SC GIVES DISPUTED SITE TO HINDUS IN LANDMARK RULING
Supreme Court rules in favour of Hindus * Modi appeals for peace and harmony * Court awards plot of land to Muslims elsewhere in city
NEW DELHI/AYODHYA: The Supreme Court on Saturday awarded a bitterly contested religious site to Hindus, dealing a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the country’s bloodiest riots since independence.
The ruling in the dispute between Hindu and Muslim groups paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya, a proposal long supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party.
Saturday’s judgment, which is likely to be viewed as a win for Modi’s BJP and its backers, was criticised as unfair by a lawyer for the Muslim group involved in the case.
However, the group’s leader said ultimately it would accept the verdict and called for peace between majority Hindus and Muslims, who constitute 14 per cent of its 1.3 billion people.
In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site, triggering riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed across the country. Court battles over the ownership of the site followed.
Jubilant Hindus, who have long campaigned for a temple to be built on the ruins of the mosque, cheered and set off fire crackers in celebration in Ayodhya after the court decision was announced.
Thousands of paramilitary force members and police were deployed in Ayodhya and other sensitive areas across India. There were no immediate reports of unrest.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision has given the nation the message that even the most difficult of all problems falls within the ambit of the constitution and within the boundaries of the judicial system,” Modi said in a televised address on Saturday evening, calling for “a new India” free of hatred.
He had earlier tweeted that the verdict should not be seen as “a win or loss for anybody”.
The ruling comes months after Modi’s government stripped the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region of its special status as a state, delivering on yet another election promise to its largely Hindu support base.
Neelanjan Sircar, an assistant professor at Ashoka University near New Delhi, said the verdict would benefit the BJP, which won re-election in May, but a slowing economy would ultimately take centre stage for voters.
“In the short term, there will be a boost for the BJP,” said Sircar. “These things don’t work forever ... Ram Temple isn’t going to put food on the table.” — Reuters