Clarion India
NEW DELHI — Shiv Sena on Wednesday sought the dismissal of Babri mosque demolition case before the bhoomi pujan ceremony for the proposed Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. It would be a true homage to “martyrs” of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Shiv Sena said.
“It’s an irony that while the foundation for the Ram Mandir is being laid, the Babri Masjid demolition case is still going on against several people including Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Even after the Supreme Court has delivered the verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi, the CBI continues with the Babri case and Advani, who was the prime leader of Ayodhya movement, appears in it as an accused,” the Shiv Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on Wednesday.
“When you accept (Mughal emperor) Babar was an aggressor, the Babri case itself becomes obsolete,” the editorial said.
“If the Babri mosque demolition case is dismissed before the ‘bhoomi pujan’ of the Ram mandir, it would be a homage to the martyrs of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement,” the Shiv Sena said.
“When you accept Babar was an aggressor, the Babri case itself becomes obsolete,” it added. A special CBI court on Monday set 24 July for recording the statement of former deputy prime minister Advani in the 1992 Babri mosque demolition case, reports PTI.
The 92-year-old BJP leader’s statement under section 313 of CrPC will be recorded through video conferencing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Ayodhya on August 5 for the ‘bhoomi pujan’ for the construction of the Ram temple.
The Shiv Sena said the day Babri mosque was pulled down, the world saw that faces of many “warriors” turned black with fear. “‘We haven’t done this, this is the job of Shiv Sena’, the then BJP vice president Sundar Singh Bhandari had said,” the Shiv Sena claimed.
“To which, late Balasaheb Thackeray thundered that if his Sainiks had indeed done it, he was proud of them,” the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.
The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992 by ‘kar sevaks’ who claimed that an ancient Ram temple had stood on the same site. Advani and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi were leading the Ram temple movement at that time.
(With inputs from PTI)
