By pegging the exact area of the Babri Masjid site at 0.313 acres, and not the original 2.77 acres, the government hopes to be in line with the court ruling in the 1994 Ismail Faruqui case which mentions return of land to original claimants once the exact area needed for acquisition is determined, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The plea contended that Parliament has no legislative competence to acquire land belonging to the state.
Every corner of the town has a police personnel standing while various security teams such as bomb disposal squads have been deployed.
The petition seeks the court's permission for worshipping the idols of the Hindu deities located on an outer wall of the mosque on a daily basis.
Mahant Narendra Giri, the newly elected president of All India Akhara Parishad, met Hashim Ansari, the oldest surviving litigant in the Babri Masjid case.
'He was full of Hindustan, its tehzeeb and its culture.'
The construction work of Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya is underway in full swing and the second phase of its foundation work would be ready by January end, officials have said.
A 1,200-year-old Hindu temple in Pakistan's Lahore city will be restored after 'illegal occupants' were evicted from it following a lengthy court battle, the federal body overseeing minority worship places in the country said on Wednesday.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has lashed out at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, accusing him of trying to evoke Muslim sentiments on the controversial Babri Masjid demolition issue, to garner votes.
The former finance minister said he would not brush aside the incident as a mere judgemental error.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on Raj Thackeray's latest political ploy and wonders if this Thackeray versus Thackeray skit will help the BJP finally achieve its goal of ejecting the Maha Vikas Aghadi government from a state that has largely been insulated from the communal disharmony sweeping across parts of north India.
In a historic verdict in November on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of construction of a temple. It also ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque within Ayodhya.
The carving work by artisans had been carried out uninterrupted since 1990 when Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
'The locals want a permanent solution to the perennial Mandir-Masjid issue. They have realised political parties will lose relevance if a temple is built.'
The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 provides for maintaining the 'religious character' of holy structures as it existed on August 15, 1947.
'Now they're talking about changing the Constitution; they feel they have no reason now to hide their intentions.'
The Supreme Court ordered on Monday that no invasive work would be undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to determine if the Gyanvapi mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi was built upon a temple and agreed to hear a plea moved by the mosque committee during the day.
'He was a nobody then.' 'And whatever little his contribution was there, it was restricted to Gujarat.'
The issue of Lord Rama grabbed headlines again on Monday when Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said he would travel to Ayodhya and open talks with stakeholders in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute on November 16.
Owaisi said the CBI should appeal against the judgment "to protect its independence."
A ready reckoner on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid issue.
The ministry of information and broadcasting on Saturday issued an advisory to all television channels and cable TV operators in the wake of the Supreme Court's Ayodhya verdict to adhere to programme code and ensure that debates, discussions and visuals do not incite any "divisive" or "anti-national" feelings.
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
The senior-most Muslim leaders of the country have appealed to all citizens to maintain peace and calm after the verdict on the Babri Masjid title suit is pronounced on September 24.
'It is a very irresponsible statement.' 'He is saying all the wrong things.'
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Madan Mohan Yadav, an advocate of the Hindu side, claimed the survey team found a Shivling in the complex near 'wazookhana'
The 17th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid largely remained a non-event in Ayodhya, in spite of the various programmes organised by political parties to mark the occasion. While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad observed it as 'Shaurya Diwas' (Valour Day) and the Babri Masjid Action Committee and the Samajwadi Party observed it as 'Black Day', the events held by them witnessed negligible participation by the locals.
'When the Babri Masjid was demolished, we didn't take permission from anyone.'
The foundation for the temple has now been filled with the final, 48th layer of roller-compacted concrete, temple trust members told reporters on Thursday.
Kalyan Singh, who was the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister at the time of demolition of the Babri Masjid, on Tuesday suggested a negotiated settlement of the vexed Ram Janmbhomi-Babri Masjid tangle. Singh, who quit the BJP on Tuesday, said that when he was the chief minister, he had initiated steps to this effect but before a settlement could be reached, his government had to go.
Indian politics, held captive in one way or the other by Ayodhya, may now well seek its emancipation from this issue, and the pursuit of welfare, asserts Congress leader Salman Khurshid in this excerpt from his latest book, Sunrise over Ayodhya.
Insisting that she was not involved in bringing down Babri Masjid, expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti -- a prime accused in the case -- on Thursday said she was ready to face any consequence following the submission of the Liberhan Commission report to the prime minister.
'Given the growing animus against the Mughals in the Sangh Parivar, only a brave person will be ready to bet that no harm will ever be done by Hindutva storm-troopers to the Taj,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The judgement is likely to be pronounced before November 17 as Justice Gogoi's tenure as the CJI comes to end on that day.
Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao is back in the news with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board accusing him of being equally responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The board went on to say that Rao could never be forgiven for the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
The plea, filed by advocates Shishir Chaturvedi and Karunesh Kumar Shukla, said that apart from private individuals and members of state Sunni Board, the presence of central and state government representatives was essential to ensure proper management of the funds.
The "Indian Muslims for peace" say they would prefer an out of court settlement so that both Hindus and Muslims remain happy and no party feels aggrieved.
Kalyan Singh's apology over the Babri masjid demolition, thus, is expected to assuage the Samajwadi Party's rank and file who have been upset over Yadav joining hands with him. Kalyan Singh, who subsequently left the BJP to plow a lonely furrow only to rejoin the party and again left it recently over being sidelined, has since been edging closer to the Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday justified the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to ban a proposed yatra by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to garner support for the construction of the RamTemple at a disputed site in Ayodhya.
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