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Muslims
Refuse To Give Up On Babri, Hindu Extremists Adamant
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| Vajpayee
meets with Muslim leaders |
By
Zafarul-Islam Khan, IOL South Asia correspondent
New
Delhi, March 12 (IslamOnline) - The All India Muslim Personal Law
Board (AIMPLB) rejected the proposal Sunday for a symbolic ''bhoomi
puja'' (earth worship) near the martyred Babri Mosque site in
Ayodhya on March 15 and construction of a temple there
The
proposal received through Jayendra Saraswathi, one of the four Hindu
pontiffs, sought permission to the VHP to build a temple instead of
their abiding by a court verdict on the disputed site. The Kanchi
seer had sent a written proposal to the Board Saturday evening.
Under the proposal, VHP would build a boundary wall around the
disputed site where the Babri Masjid stood before its demolition and
begin construction of the temple. However, the Board was neither
provided a copy of the undertaking given by the Ramjanmabhoomi Trust
to the government to abide by the court verdict or its temple
construction plan.
The
Muslim side felt that acceptance of the proposal would open the
floodgates for Temple building on the site while Muslims would get
nothing in return. In view of the past experience, there is no hope
that the extremists could be retrained once they start their
building activity. A point of compromise could be for the Muslims to
regain the martyred mosque's site, a very small piece of land, while
the extremists get the very large expanse adjoining it. However,
this is not acceptable to the extremists who want to place the sanctum
sanctorum of their temple at the very site where the masjid's mihrab
once stood.
The
Board meeting considered the proposal put forward by the
Shankaracharya of Kanchi, who was roped in by the Government and the
Hindu extremists to convince the Muslim side to allow the puja
on March 15 and the actual construction on June 2 on what they term
as 'undisputed land'. The Supreme Court of India considers all the
land 'disputed' and has asked the Indian government to act as
guardian of the land until the final verdict is out.
The
AIMPLB statement said that the proposal put forward is
"incomplete and incoherent''. It said the settlement is not
possible in a piecemeal manner. Hoping for better proposals to come
up, it appealed to the Center to ensure the maintenance of status
quo in the land acquired by it and effective steps to ensure
that no symbolic karsewa (voluntary work) or puja
(worship) took place in the area. The Board also condemned the riots
in Gujarat.
The
rejection was unanimous, AIMPLB convenor, Dr Qasim Rasool Ilyas,
told IslamOnline.
Advocate
Yusuf Muchala, an AIMPLB member, said the Board was open to
constructive suggestions "from any quarter except the Sangh
Parivar [RSS family], the Bajrang Dal and those responsible for the
demolition of the Babri Masjid".
Earlier,
AIMPLB member and Babri Masjid Action Committee Convenor, Syed
Shahabuddin, said there was unanimity among the members that
"not even one brick should be laid on the disputed land without
the Supreme Court's permission". He also said the Board members
felt there was nothing new in the compromise formula offered by the
Shankaracharya of Kanchi. "It's just a new way of putting the
VHP's stand."
"The
Babri Masjid site is not to be sold, gifted or bargained," he
said. He said the board stuck to its earlier stand, and was prepared
to negotiate with the government on any suggestion it came out with.
As
a result of official and media misinformation campaign, there was an
apprehension in Muslim minds here that some members of the AIMPLB
may try to derail the consensus which says that since the Hindu
extremist side is adamant to capture the Babri land and shows no
inclination to address the Muslim point of view, only a court
verdict will be acceptable to the Muslims. The meeting saw
demonstrations by the Citizens for Peace, an umbrella group
comprising Islam Preaching Centre, Bharatiya Muslim Majlis, and
National Lok Tantrik Party. "Most Muslims don't want talks with
the government," The group's spokesperson Wasim Ahmad Ghazi
said.
The
Babri Mosque was demolished by the extremists on December 6, 1992
and ever since a make-shift temple exists at the site which is open
for Hindu worship while Muslims are not allowed to approach the
place. In the extremist campaign shortly before and after the
demolition about three thousand Muslims were killed. The issue
remains a major political problem India faces for the last two
decades.
With
the AIMPLB's rejection of the proposals, the ball is in the Supreme
Court's ground. It is expected to consider within days two Muslim
petitions seeking restraint on VHP activities in the town of Ayodhya
and to stop the convergence of the extremist volunteers in that city
for the March 15 ceremony.
The
VHP, on the other hand, asserted today that it would go ahead with
its proposed symbolic 'bhoomi puja' at the undisputed site in
Ayodhya on March 15, saying nobody has the right to encroach upon
the "religious rights of Hindus". Commenting on the
statement of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that the Supreme
Court will decide whether or not to allow the symbolic puja
on March 15, VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia said "nobody
in this country has the right to encroach upon the religious rights
of Hindus to perform 'puja', 'yagna', 'archan' or 'upasana'
[various forms of Hindu worship]." "Efforts by the
government or the Muslims to stop the ceremony will go against our
religious beliefs," he told a local TV channel here.
Amidst
heightening apprehensions over the March 15 program of the VHP and
Ram Janambhoomi Nyas, a group of Hindus and Muslims Sunday took out
a symbolic 'peace march' in Ayodhya in order to emphasize the need
for communal harmony and national integration. The silent march, led
by noted Gandhian Nirmala Desphande, was taken out symbolically in
view of the prohibitory orders.
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