Justice Palok Basu, who retired from the Allahabad high court in 2002, was recently in Ayodhya meeting leaders on both sides.
A retired judge’s “independent” initiative to resolve the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute has created confusion among the parties concerned.
Justice Palok Basu, who retired from the Allahabad high court in 2002, was recently in Ayodhya meeting leaders on both sides.
According to sources, he has undertaken hush-hush trips to the sacred town in the past as well, but hasn’t achieved much. The retired judge has been at pains to explain that his mission is totally “independent”, but knowledgeable sources claim that he has the backing of the Centre, especially the Congress leadership, which reportedly wants to take the credit for resolving the ongoing dispute out of court.
In any case, leaders on both sides of the dispute have rejected the initiative as meaningless. “This kind of an exercise just doesn’t make any sense now that the case [relating to the disputed Ayodhya shrine] is in its last stage,” said Zafaryab Jilani, senior advocate and convenor of the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee.
“We have already said we will respect the court’s verdict… any kind of out-of-court settlement is totally unacceptable,” he asserted.
Around the time that justice Basu was meeting those connected with the title suit in Ayodhya on Sunday last, VHP leader Ashok Singhal announced at a meeting of sant-mahants at Kar Sevak Puram in Ayodhya that the Centre was hatching a plot to get a mosque constructed in Ayodhya. “There is a conspiracy to build a mosque at the Amavan temple adjacent to the 67 acres land [acquired by the Centre after the 1992 demolition] … but we will never allow a mosque to be constructed within the boundaries of Ayodhya,” Singhal had said.
Though the VHP leaders did not directly refer to justice Basu or his mission, they expressed apprehensions that the Centre had started a “surreptitious” exercise to build a mosque in Ayodhya in the name of resolving the dispute out of court.
Justice Basu reportedly had a tough time convincing the people he met during his day-long stay about the authority or credibility of his initiative. A local journalist said the judge was stumped when Akahara Parishad president and mahant of the famous Hanumangarhi temple Gyan Das asked him who was behind this exercise and what was his formula for resolving the Ayodhya dispute.
Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas (trust) chief Mahant Nritya Gopal Das also told justice Basu that the only solution to the dispute was to hand over the disputed land to the Hindus for building the Ram temple.
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