NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi has suggested that the people of Ayodhya be given a free hand to solve the vexed Babri Masjid dispute without outside interference.
”There is a strong feeling among both the communities that a diplomatic compromise can be arrived at,” says Pataudi.
He feels that the government should allow the people of Ayodhya or the entire district to decide themselves and keep “vested interests” at bay.
Welcoming the suggestion of a Supreme Court judge to head an inquiry commission to solve a tangle, he adds “we must accept the basic point that the local people should have their say in the matter without outside interference.”
“Even people from both the communities at village levels could sit together and decide themselves.”
According to Pataudi the minority community was prepared to vacate the disputed place as a gesture of goodwill and to help maintain communal harmony in the long run. He, however, adds that whoever built a temple at the site must give a guarantee that their ambition will be limited to Ayodhya only. He said a crossectional of people he had met in the past two years were of the view that there was an urgent need for a central legislation for status quo at all religious places in the country.
On the prevailing communal tension in the country, Pataudi says “…you cannot escape mixing religion with politics in India because the country is deeply religious and its national game is politics and not cricket or hockey.”
Supporting secular democracy Pataudi says “the idea of running a country as a theocratic nation has not worked and cannot work…”
Pakistan is built through religion, by religion and for religion and it split within 25 years paving way for Bangladesh.”
“India has to remain a secular democracy otherwise we are finished,” he adds.
Scores have been killed in communal riots countrywide that were fanned by attempts by some Hindu organisations to construct a temple in the place of a mosque existing in Ayodhya earlier this month.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 30, 1990
