Babri talks a gimmick 8212; Muslim Board

Board member Maulana Sajjad Nomani told The Indian Express today that the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP had deviated from the Ram temple issue to accommodate allied parties and was now finding it difficult to face voters. So it had initiated the talks, he alleged, just to fool people in the Lok Sabha elections.

8220;The Babri dispute is not that easy that it can be solved by such meetings,8221; he said, adding the Board was not against a dialogue on the issue but it should be between the 8220;right8221; representatives.

The first meeting at Ayodhya on Monday 8212; whose participants were state BJP vice-president and former MP, Vinay Katiyar, and the member of the Babri Masjid Action Committee from Ayodhya who isalso a plaintiff in the Ram Janmabhoomi case, Mohammed Hashim Ansari 8212; has brought the issue to the fore.

After the meeting, Katiyar and Hashim had expressed hope that soon a solution, acceptable to both communities, would be found. They also promised that the next meeting would be broad-based.

The issue would be discussed with Prime Minister Vajpayee and UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh also, they said, adding other issues of both the communities in Ayodhya would also be solved through talks.

But, Maulana Sajjad Nomani alleges the dialogue begun at the instance of the BJP8217;s Delhi leaders by Katiyar and Hashim was 8220;misleading and mischievous8221; and a 8220;poll stunt8221;. It was nothing but a Sangh Parivar game-plan for the elections, he added.

The Maulana also said Muslims would not shed their legal and Shariat rights over the Babri Masjid. He said no individual or a group of persons had any right to speak on behalf of the entire community.

Nomani said the Board was of the view that even after thedemolition the structure remained a mosque in Shariat. 8220;No part of it can be given away by any Muslim in exchange or through an agreement,8221; he said, adding no committee formed to promote the cause of Babri Masjid or Board would participate in the meetings called by Katiyar and Hashim.

He said the Muslim community was awaiting the court verdict.8220;Whatever the judgment it would be acceptable to us,8221; they said.

Nomani also argued over a point which Katiyar held to be a guiding factor in the talks. Katiyar had pointed to a fatwa from Muslim religious leaders of Deoband in 1984 which said: 8220;Muslims do not accept a place of worship built on a forcibly acquired land.8221; Referring to this, Nomani said the site had first got to be described as a disputed land by the court. There was no use quoting from the fatwa of Deoband religious leaders at this juncture, he said.