NEW DELHI: The All India Babari Masjid Action Committee (AIBMAC) on Thursday accused the government of not “cooperating” with its nominated historians in finding a solution to the temple Mosque dispute in Ayodhya.

Talking to reporters after a daylong meeting of representatives of the AIBMAC here its convener Zafaryab Jilani said the AIBMAC would invite leaders of all national parties except the BJP for its two day national convention beginning in Lucknow on March 9.

The convention would assess the progress made towards resolving the Vexed Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid issue and decide the future course of action he said. The meeting was presided over by Sharifqur Rehman Burg U.P state convener of the AIBMAC and Uttar Pradesh minister of state for area development.

Jilanai said the AIBMAC had not accepted the resignation tendered by Jawed Habeeb a prominent member of the action committee. This decision was taken in view of the “valuable continuations” made by Habeeb to the action committee. Habeeb had resigned from AIBMAC on January 20.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) for its part said the government should only verify the authenticity of the rival documentary evidences on the Ayodhya dispute and not invite comments on them from anybody.

The VHP joint secretary Surya Krishna said here that so far they had “not heard from the government as to what had happened to the verification of these documents”. The documents were submitted by the VHP and the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee (AIBMAC) on February 6.

Both VHP and AIBMAC had decided at the fifth round of talks on Feb 6 to provide the government with a summary of their views.

Surya Krishna said the government should “not entertain any comments or views on these documents from any expert or body as this had not been discussed at the talks.”

Article extracted from this publication >> March 1, 1991