Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad house in New Delhi on Friday. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)Three days before the Supreme Court fixes a date for hearing of appeals challenging the Allahabad High Court order in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, responding to a question on bringing an ordinance for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site, said “the matter is before the judiciary, let it be completed” and “once it comes from the judiciary, wherever the responsibility of a government begins, we are ready to make all efforts”.
In an interview to news agency ANI telecast Tuesday, the Prime Minister suggested that the judicial process was being slowed down by Congress lawyers who were creating “obstructions” in the Supreme Court. Asked why had the government not brought an ordinance on the Ram temple issue as it did in the case of triple talaq and whether there was a problem, Modi said: “The triple talaq ordinance was brought after the Supreme Court judgment, not before the Supreme Court judgment, and in the light of the Supreme Court judgment. We have said in our BJP manifesto that a solution would be found under the ambit of the Constitution.”
The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute will be taken up by the SC on Friday. (File)“Nobody can deny that those sitting in governments in the 70 years since Independence tried their best to stall a solution to this (Ayodhya) issue. Even today, the matter is in the Supreme Court, in the final stages in a way. I especially beseech colleagues in the Congress, for the sake of peace, security and amity in the country, to stop their lawyers from creating obstructions in court. They should not obstruct. All lawyer friends, who are affiliated to the Congress and are trying to stop this, should also go to court and focus on completing the judicial process,” he said.
Asked if the Ram temple can be built only with national consensus, Modi said: “What I am saying is that there should be an end to obstructions in court by Congress lawyers. The judicial process should be allowed to run according to the law. It should not be weighed in political terms. The matter is before the judiciary, let it be completed. Once it comes from the judiciary, wherever the responsibility of a government begins, we are ready to make all efforts.”
