HYDERABAD: Describing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s statements on the Gyanvapi mosque as a “judicial outreach” at a time when Muslims have appealed in the Allahabad High Court against the ASI survey inside the mosque, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday accused the BJP leader of trying to exert pressure on the judiciary.
Speaking to the media in New Delhi, Owaisi referred to the Places of Worship Act-1991, which makes it clear that a community in possession of any place of worship before August 15, 1947, could claim to be the rightful owner of the religious structure.
“As a chief minister, you should follow the law, but you are putting pressure on the judiciary by making the controversial statement when the High Court will be delivering its verdict on the appeal of Muslims in a few days. The mosque has been there for the past 400 years and you want to impose pressure,” he said, referring to Adityanath.
The UP Chief Minister had said that the Muslim society needed to come forward with a proposal for a solution by accepting that there has been a historic mistake done with respect to Gyanvapi mosque.
Owaisi advised Adityanath to refer to what Swami Vivekananda had said about a disputed mosque in Odisha. “Some 50 to 60 years ago Muslims had made an agreement with the Hindu society on Mathura and had submitted it in the court. Still, there is a dispute being raised. This is only part of their communal politics,” he said.
Pointing out that a bill on the Delhi Ordinance could be tabled in Parliament in a week, Owaisi sent a notice to the Lok Sabha secretary, stating that the ordinance was damaging the federal spirit enshrined in the Constitution and that he was opposing the bill.