LUCKNOW: Politicians across party lines have reacted to CJI DY Chandrachud’s remarks that he prayed to God for a solution to settle the centuries-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. After Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena (UBT), it was the turn of senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s relative and the party’s national general secretary.
Ram Gopal Yadav was left red-faced on Monday after a video of him allegedly abusing Chief Justice of India (CJI) went viral on various social media platforms.
In the purported video, when Ram Gopal Yadav was asked a question on the CJI’s remarks on the Ayodhya verdict, he reacted sharply by saying when the dead are brought back to life, they turn into ghosts and haunt the public. “Many people talk like this, should I take notice of them,” Yadav is seen saying while using a cuss word allegedly against the CJI, saying why should he take notice of what he (CJI) said.
However, later, in a bid to cover up his statement, the SP leader claimed that he was not asked a question on the CJI. “Nobody asked me anything about the CJI. The CJI is a very reputed person. I never made any comment (on him). I was asked about Bahraich (violence) and I responded to that,” he told media persons.
The SP leader had commented on the CJI’s remark while interacting with media persons in Karhal assembly constituency where he had landed to be with Taj Pratap Yadav who filed his nomination papers on Monday as the SP candidate for the upcoming bypoll.
On Sunday, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that he prayed to God for a solution to the centuries-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. “Very often we have cases (to adjudicate) but we don't arrive at a solution. Something similar happened during the Ayodhya (Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute) which was in front of me for three months. I sat before the deity and told him he needs to find a solution,” he said. “Believe me, if you have faith, God will always find a way,” the CJI reportedly said.
On November 9, 2019, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi settled a fractious issue that went back more than a century by paving the way for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The bench also ruled that a mosque will come up on an alternative five-acre plot in Ayodhya itself. CJI Chandrachud was part of the bench that delivered the historic verdict.