Hindus, Muslims welcome apex court view on Ayodhya

Monday May 09, 2011 10:07:37 PM, IANS

Lucknow: Rival parties might have been at loggerheads over the centuries old Ayodhya dispute, yet both sides heartily welcomed the view taken Monday by the apex court on the issue.

Just as the Muslim side represented by the Sunni Central Waqf Board were opposed to the Sep 30, 2010 verdict of Allahabad High Court, so were the Hindus, represented by Nirmohi Akhada, Hindu Mahasabha, and Ram Lalla 'Virajman'.

Both sides had moved the Supreme Court pleading against the high court verdict, which ordered division of the disputed site into three parts - with two going to separate Hindu parties and one to the lone Muslim party.

"We were always against any kind of division of the disputed site and that was what even the Supreme Court found strange," was the common refrain of each of the three parties, who were otherwise vehemently opposed to each other.

They were all happy with the Supreme Court's observation, "it was strange on the part of high court to have ordered division of the disputed site in the absence of any such prayer from any of the parties."

Likewise the Supreme Court's order on maintaining status quo was also hailed. "The apex court order will not affect the prevailing situation in and around the disputed site," was what Sunni Central Waqf Board counsel Zafaryab Jilani said as well as Nirmohi Akhada chief Mahant Bhaskar Das and Ram Lalla 'Virajman' counsel Ravi Shankar Prasad.

What made the Hindu parties happy was the fact that they would continue to offer prayers in the makeshift temple at the disputed site. For the Muslim parties, it was very satisfying that the apex court had disallowed prayer in any other part of the area.

"It was quite heartening to find the honourable apex court expressing surprise over the high court decision to split the disputed land into three parts even though such a request was not made by any of the parties," Jilani said.

Ninety-year old Mohammad Hashim Ansari, who was the oldest Muslim litigant in the 125-year old legal battle, was equally elated over the Supreme Court decision to admit the special appeal. Visibly just as high-spirited as he was decades ago when he moved the local court seeking right to offer 'namaz' in the mosque after it was forcibly occupied by Hindus, Ansari told reporters in Ayodhya, "At long last, the case has reached the right forum from where we are now hopeful of getting justice; so many years have gone by in the litigation before smaller courts and the high court."

Bajrang Dal founder and prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinay Katiyar, who had always been on the forefront of the Ayodhya movement for at least two-and-half decades, also expressed much satisfaction over the apex court's move. "I am really glad that the Supreme Court has shown its disapproval of the high court's decision to divide the birthplace of Lord Ram," he told IANS.

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