NEW DELHI, 6 July 2003 — India’s main Muslim body will today discuss a Hindu religious leader’s proposals to solve an explosive religious dispute over the ruins of an ancient mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya, as the Central Bureau of Investigating (CBI) yesterday told a court that eyewitnesses had seen Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani instigating Hindu zealots to tear down the Ayodhya mosque in 1992.
Quoting statements of about a dozen witnesses before special judge V.K. Singh at a court in Rae Bareilly in northern Uttar Pradesh state, CBI counsel S.S. Gandhi said Advani and other leaders present at Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992 made “inflammatory” speeches in the morning, a Press Trust of India (PTI) report said.
The leaders also “instigated” the Hindu activists to demolish the Babri Mosque, Gandhi said, quoting the witnesses.
Others named by the counsel included Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, former sports minister Uma Bharti and right-wing Hindu leaders Sadhvi Ritambhara and Ashok Singhal.
All of them are facing charges in the special court at Rae Bareilly for their role in the demolition. On May 31, the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet against Advani and others in the court.
Meanwhile, prospects of Hindus and Muslims reaching any outside court settlement over the Ayodhya-issue decreased with hard-line Hindu groups displaying no change in their stand. Hindu seer, Kanchi Shankarcharya Jayendra Saraswati who is playing a key role in reaching a compromise with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, also appears to have adopted a hard line on the Ayodhya issue.
During an interview to a private news-channel, Saraswati ruled out the prospect of any mosque in Ayodhya. “It (mosque) should be built where it is required... It is not required in Ayodhya where people are already worshipping,” Saraswati said. “Muslims already have eight places of worship in the area and there is no need for any more.” He added, “They can’t leave the ones they are using to go to another place of worship.” If the Ayodhya issue was settled, on whether Hindus will pull down any mosque in future, he replied, “Koi nahin girayega (nobody will demolish).”
Rejecting the Kanchi-seer’s stand, All India Babri Masjid Action Committee convener Zafaryab Jilani said: “This proposal is rejected outright by us. Muslims do not want to construct mosque at any other place. It will be built at the original site only.”
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will meet in Lucknow to discuss the proposals from Swami Jayendra Saraswati. The proposals are being seen as one of the most serious attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement between Hindus and Muslims, who both claim the piece of land in Ayodhya on which the 16th-century Babri Mosque once stood.
A Hindu campaign began in the mid-1980s to have a temple built at the site, while some Muslims want the mosque rebuilt. The matter is before a court, which has ordered archaeologists to dig up the site to determine whether a temple had existed beneath the mosque.
But there have also been behind-the-scenes talks between Hindu and Muslim leaders to settle the issue out of court.
Though there is no official word on exactly what the seer’s suggestions are, reports in the media and sources in the government indicate there are three broad proposals.
The first and apparently most popular one is that Muslims give the Ayodhya land to Hindus for the construction of a temple and in return receive land five kilometers (three miles) away to build a mosque with help from the government.
As part of this, the government would allow Muslims to pray at 100 mosques across the country, which are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Hindus would also give up their claims in similar temple-mosque disputes at Kashi and Mathura cities in Uttar Pradesh.
The second proposal involves the building of both a mosque and a temple at the site. They would be separated by a body of water. The third proposal talks about a wall being built between a temple and a mosque with no construction taking place on the disputed site until the court verdict.
While Saraswati may have support from the BJP-led government, the backing of radical Hindu outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which was at the forefront of the demolition, is less certain: At some times they appear to be softening to the seer’s proposals, at others they reject his intervention altogether. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) indicated it would accept a legal settlement of the Ayodhya dispute if negotiations on the issue failed. The RSS and its affiliate groups, at their meeting at the country’s southernmost tip in Kanyakumari yesterday, not only discussed building a Ram temple at Ayodhya but also told the BJP-led government of Vajpayee that there were two options on the issue: A legal solution or one through negotiations.
It also emphasized the need for the government to carry all Hindu viewpoints on the Ayodhya issue, including those of the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The resolution came even as VHP leader Ashok Singhal reiterated his demand for Vajpayee’s resignation for failing to legislate on building a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav told reporters in Kanyakumari yesterday evening “vested interests” bent on creating “confusion” and “rift” were making “distinct attempts to divide the various Hindu groups”.
AIMPLB spokesman Maulana Sajjad Nomani, meanwhile, said: “The board will discuss how much importance it can give to the commitment of the Kanchi seer to ensure compliance from all the parties involved in the dispute.” With the some Hindu groups hardening their stance on Ayodhya, most Muslim leaders favor a judicial verdict. “Only the court can give a permanent solution. We are bound by its verdict,” Deoband Vice-Chancellor Margoob-ur-Rahman said.
