A fierce tug of war has erupted among prominent Muslim leaders over the settlement of the Ayodhya dispute after the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday expelled Maulana Salman Nadvi, perceived to be a 'moderate'.
Following Nadvi's expulsion, the pro-change 'moderate' camp and and no change 'hardliners' are hurling accusations against each other. With fierce division among AIMPLB leaders, it is quite unlikely that any compromise formula can come up soon.
Both the camps, moderates and hardliners, have refused to budge an inch from their stance.
Nadvi, peeved over his expulsion, has called for the dissolution of the board. He said, “The board is being governed by the tyrannical attitude of some of its members who are impeding settlement of the dispute, so the board should be dissolved immediately.”
He has also made it clear that he would not give up his efforts at mediation for settling the dispute and will meet seers and saints in Ayodhya. He is of the opinion that in the light of these events, the AIMPLB has lost its significance.
The head of the UP Shia Central Waqf Board, Wasim Rizvi, who too has been favouring an out-of-court settlement of the temple dispute, said, “The board is a branch of a terrorist organisation, which is being patronised by Pakistan. It should be immediately banned. All vital decisions pertaining to the Muslim community in India are taken by a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.”
Rizvi has been facing stiff opposition from the members of his own community because he advocated construction of temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and shifting of the mosque elsewhere.
On the other hand, the AIMPLB is adamant on building the mosque at the disputed site and made it clear that it would not make any compromise on this issue.
Meanwhile Deoband, another revered religious school of Muslims, has also jumped into the fray.
A prominent cleric, Maulana Nadeem Ulwajadi, has justified AIMPLB's decision to expel Nadvi, and said, “The board should have expelled Nadvi earlier; whoever works against the policies of the board should be given the same treatment. The board has already made it clear since the beginning that it would abide by the decision of the court.”
A former cabinet minister in UP, Mohammed Azam Khan, too has assailed Nadvi’s stance of building a temple at the disputed site. Khan who was a Muslim face in the previous Akhilesh Yadav government, said, “If we follow Nadvi’s advice, then in future, any mosque will not remain in its place in the country.”
Another prominent Muslim religious leader Kalbe Sadiq, though refraining from directly commenting on the issue, said, “A temple should of course be built in Ayodhya but it should be the ‘temple of learning’” and added,“Whenever people from both sides would like to resolve the dispute, it will be resolved automatically.”
There is a unanimous feeling among community leaders that in the light of prevailing fissures, it difficult to reach at a commonly acceptable solution to the Ayodhya issue in the near future.