MIM takes exception to ASI study into Viswanath temple, Gyanvapi Masjid land

Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has expressed his concern over the order of a Varanasi court, which directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake a study into the dispute over the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Gyanvapi Masjid land.

Owaisi said on Twitter, “The legality of this order is doubtful. In the Babri judgment, the SC said, “A finding of the title cannot be based in law on the archaeological findings which have been arrived at by ASI....” He added, “ASI has acted as a midwife to all kinds of Hindutva lies, no one expects objectivity from it.”

Owaisi said that as witnesses to the excavations carried out by ASI in Ayodhya in 2003, “(there were those who) detail the many irregularities and outdated methods the ASI observed. They also had filed objections regarding some of the procedures followed by the ASI.”

The MIM leader said, “It is clear that the people who committed the egregious criminal act of demolishing Babri Masjid have been emboldened and will not stop at anything to take India back to the violence of the 1980s-90s and constant bickering over fictitious history. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is required by law to enforce the Places of Worship Act 1991, which prohibits conversion of religious places. He must find the courage to intervene. Many were patronising us with talk about "closure" (of the case) when we expressed our disappointment about Babri (judgement). Where are you all now,” he asked.

The Hyderabad MP opined that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and masjid committee must immediately file an appeal against this order and get this rectified. “ASI is only likely to perpetrate a fraud and history will be repeated as was done in the case of Babri. No person has any right whatsoever to change the nature of a Masjid,” Owaisi stressed.