New Delhi, october 04: Arguing that “law” had upheld “faith”, L K Advani architect of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation said that the Allahabad High Court judgment had opened the doors for an amicable negotiated settlement to the 60-year-old dispute.
Advani said he was “extremely happy” to note that after the judgment, the nation had “arrived at a fortuitous point” where “judicial verdict” and “amicable solution” could be blended well.
Articulating his views in his blog, Advani said he always believed that the ultimate solution was a combination of judicial verdict and an amicable settlement between representatives of Hindus and Muslims.
The senior BJP leader recalled the NDA government’s efforts to resolve the dispute. Having already made it clear that the verdict vindicated their demand for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Advani said “the situation no longer is faith versus law, it is faith upheld by law.”
“As both the RSS as well as the BJP have emphasised, this judgment has given judicial recognition to the fact that millions in the country do believe that the makeshift temple where Ram Lalla is presently installed is Ram Janmabhoomi the birthplace of Rama,” he wrote.
In his blog, Advani reproduced passages from his autobiography My Country, My Life, where he says that after a review of both the political and judicial aspects of the Ayodhya issue, he had come to the conclusion that the best path to follow was an amicable settlement between the two sides. There were three obvious options legislation, judicial verdict and negotiated settlement for a resolution, he had felt.
“In a nutshell, my view was: The potential for a legislative solution cannot be ruled out, but its chances are slim. The judiciary may give its verdict, but it is likely to upset one side or the other. The third option offers the prospect of a solution of mutual acceptability and durability. Of course, even a mutually acceptable settlement has to be sanctified by the judiciary, which has to extinguish all the pending cases before it,” he quotes from his book.
The BJP veteran, quoting further from the book, said it had been his endeavour through the six years of NDA rule under Vajpayee to look at “speedily and peacefully” resolving the temple dispute. Advani, in his autobiography, had recorded that a solution to the dispute was imminent during former BJP PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s rule.
-Agencies