Hyderabad, October 02: BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member M Venkaiah Naidu today welcomed the Allahabad High Court verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi and urged both the contesting parties to settle the issue out of court without continuing the controversy further in the larger interest of the nation.
“All petitioners, without going back into the history, should move forward to find an amicable solution by holding consultations,’’ he said at a crowded press conference at the party’s state headquarters here.
Toning down his reaction to the controversy and the judgment, he said the judgment was not a victory or defeat for any petitioner but it laid the road for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“The High Court judgment declared the place where idols are in place at present as the birth place of Rama and that the mosque was constructed using some of the pillars of the demolished temple. The judges came to that conclusion on the basis of the findings of the Archaeological Surrey of India,’’ Naidu said.
“The petitioners have every right to move the Supreme Court if they are not satisfied with the High Court judgment.
No one can prevent them from doing so.
All political parties and the RSS have declared that they will abide by the court’s judgment,’’ the MP observed.
“It is not a mandirmasjid row but a question of Indian cultural heritage. The petitioner should consider this before proceeding further,’’ he said and recalled petitioner Ansari’s statement that he was ready to accept the judgment on the title issue and hoped that the rest of the petitioners also would take the same decision.
“In Ayodha there are nearly 20 mosques and no one raised a question about their sanctity. People of the country raised questions only over Babri masjid which was constructed at the birth place of Sri Rama. Lord Sri Rama is a symbol of good governance. That is why every leader from Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi dreame of Ram Raj. The BJP had passed a resolution long ago at its executive committee meeting demanding that the government remove the hurdles for reconstruction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Only after that did party leader LK Advani undertake the rathayatra on the issue.’’ Venkaiah Naidu described the judgment as an eye-opener to all pseudo-secularists and vote-bank politicians in the country. “As far as BJP is concerned temple re-construction will be taken up by the sadhus and swamijis. They want the government not to create any hurdles.
The BJP has no soft or hard line but only a nationalist line,’’ the senior leader said.
Party state president G Kishan Reddy, former Union minister B Dattatreya and several other leaders were present at the press conference.
–Agencies