Asaduddin Owaisi: Babri verdict emboldened Hindutva groups to target mosques

Hyderabad, Nov (IANS) AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi said on Wednesday that the Babri Masjid judgment has emboldened Hindutva groups to target Muslim places of worship across India.

The Hyderabad MP cited the case of Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi, Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.

“Within three hours of the application being submitted, the Civil Judge ordered an initial survey at the mosque site to find out if a temple had been demolished to build the mosque. The application was made by a lawyer who is the UP government’s standing counsel in SC. The survey was carried out on the same day. This is how Babri’s locks were also opened within an hour of the court order, without even hearing the other side,” Owaisi posted on X.

“This “speed” isn’t shown in ordinary cases. If courts continue to carry out such orders, the Places of Worship Act is just a dead-letter. The Act was meant to prevent such litigation from even reaching courts in the first place,” he said.

Owaisi stated that a masjid that has been used as such for hundreds of years is being made subject to motivated and communal litigation. He said courts must nip this in the bud.

A court on Tuesday ordered a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid. It pronounced the orders on a petition filed by a mahant who claimed the mosque was built in 1526 after demolishing a temple that stood there.

Civil Judge (Senior Division) Aditya Singh directed Ramesh Chand Raghav, whom the court appointed advocate commissioner, to carry out an initial survey at the mosque site to find out if a temple had been demolished to build the mosque. The court also directed that a report of the survey should be filed by November 29.

The advocate commissioner and a special team formed after consultation with the managing committee of the mosque, petitioners and local officials reached the site for the survey by evening.