NEW DELHI (PTD: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board Jan.9 rejected the Center’s Ayodhya package and asked Muslim ministers to “oppose and condemn” it.
Without specifying how the ministers should oppose it, the board said in a resolution adopted at its daylong meeting here that every person who called himself a Muslim “whether he is a prince or a pauper, a commoner or a minister” should close ranks and “unambiguously oppose and condemn the government’s action.”
The board’s call assumes significance in the wake of the reported statement by the railway minister, C.K.Jaffer Sharicf, at Indian southern state Karnataka’s capital Bangalore Friday that his continuance in the cabinet depended “certainly” on the board’s decision.
The board, considered to be the highest body of Muslim theologians and religious scholars, said the demolition of Babri Mosque, the “illegal construction” in its place, installation of idols followed by permission for worship, the acquisition of Masjid and trust land and the single point reference to the India’s apex court supreme court under article 143, all seemed to be “part of a wider conspiracy.”
The board considered the single point reference to the Supreme Court as a “conspiracy” to seize night of property of Muslims and hence, condemned the government’s move.
“As long as the acquisition and move for reference to the Supreme Court are not withdrawn and the mosque is not retuned to Muslims, it is difficult to restore the confidence of Muslims in democracy and secularism,” it said.
The board also decided to form a seven member committee to “Lake over the Babri Masjid movement” and declared that its decisions in respect of the Ayodhya dispute would be binding on the Muslims.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 15, 1993
