NEW DELHI, April 13 (News Agencies) - India's top Muslim cleric on Friday blasted Home Minister L.K. Advani for saying the controversial site of a mosque razed by Hindu zealots eight years ago was effectively a Hindu temple.
Syed Ahmed Bukhari said in a statement that Advani was trying to subvert "the supremacy of law" as the dispute over the demolition of the 16th century Babri Mosque was pending before Indian courts.
The razing of the mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, sparked some of post-independence India's worst Hindu-Muslim violence in which 2,000 people were killed.
Advani, accused with two other ministers of inciting crowds to demolish the mosque, said on Wednesday that the Ayodhya site was that of a Hindu temple, both in the eyes of the law and the people.
Advani made the statement while appearing before the Liberhan Commission investigating the mosque razing.
Bukhari said Advani's remarks reflected the two-faced nature of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist BJP party.
"The BJP has two faces, first one of Vajpayee who talks of secularism and the second of his cabinet colleagues who take pleasure in hurting sentiments of Muslims with reference to the Babri Masjid," he added.
He said Vajpayee was encouraging his party leaders towards their ideal of making India into a nation ruled only by Hindus.
"Vajpayee sings in a different tune while meeting leaders of Muslim countries," Bukhari said, adding that Vajpayee had during a recent visit to Iran lavished praise on Islamic leaders in building Indian civilization.
The Ayodhya issue was brought back into the spotlight in December when Vajpayee said the campaign to build a temple on the Ayodhya site was an "unfinished task" founded in national sentiment.
