SP renews call for Babri Masjid reconstruction

Azmi,who will lead the campaign by addressing public meetings at selected places in the state,said the SP would settle for nothing less than the reconstruction of Babri Masjid at the original site,as promised by the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1992.

“If there is rule of law in India,then the Babri Masjid should be reconstructed. Then (one might) proceed in the court to establish whether a temple existed at that site before the demolition on December 6,1992,” Azmi said. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav recounted how his government had protected the Babri Masjid in 1990 at the height of the Kar Sewa agitation by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Amar Singh said,“The Congress had promised to reconstruct the Babri Masjid and the promise was made by none other then Prime Minister PV Narsihma Rao. What prevents the Congress from fulfilling its promise?”

“I know the Congress will offer the argument that the case is sub judice. If the court can hold hearings on a day-to-day basis in the dispute over the sharing of gas between the Ambani brothers,why can’t hearings in the Babri case be conducted in a similar manner? Why has this issue been pending in court for the last 20 years?” asked Amar Singh. “The Congress should tell the nation when it will reconstruct the Babri Masjid.”

The SP also demanded that the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)—- proscribed for its involvement in ‘alleged’ subversive and terrorist activitie— – be lifted. After eight years,a tribunal headed by a Delhi High Court judge has concluded that there was no evidence of involvement of SIMI in anti-national activities,Abu Azmi said. Recalling that Congress leader Salman Khursheed,now a Union minister,was the counsel for SIMI after it was banned by the NDA government,Azmi asked,“What is Salman Khursheed doing about lifting the ban on SIMI after the tribunal has given its finding?”

Training his guns on the then Congress government,headed by Sharad Pawar,Azmi narrated the plight of Muslims during the communal violence that played out in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra in the aftermath of the demolition and the Mumbai serial blasts in March 1993. Defending his action of taking the oath in Hindi,Azmi said he never opposed the Marathi language,“but Hindi is the elder sister”.

“The country will be run by the rule of law,not by dictates of the MNS,” he said.