Holy men disappointed with SC deferring hearing of Ayodhya title suit

Holy men in Uttar Pradesh on Monday expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court deferring the hearing on the Ayodhya title suit to January.

Mahant Paramhans Das, who had recently gone on an indefinite sit-in to press for an early construction of a Ram temple on the disputed site in Ayodhya, said that the Hindu community and the holy men have no patience to wait for long.

He asked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to immediately announce the commencement of the Ram temple construction, failing which the BJP, RSS and the VHP will face the wrath of the Hindus. "BJP rode to power both at the Centre and UP on the promise of Ram temple construction. Now the time has come for them to fulfil their promise" he added.

Satyendra Das, the chief priest of the Ram Janma Bhoomi, said it pained him that the delay by the apex court would now mean a "longer wait for Lord Rama under the tent."

The Muslim petitioner in the case, Iqbal Ansari, too said that he was sad that Lord Ram's idol was under the tent, but reiterated that everyone should wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court and that this would be acceptable to both sides.

President of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, Jitendranand Saraswati, warned the government against any further delay in the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and said they will not wait for the SC hearings and would rather build pressure on the Narendra Modi government to bring a law in Prliament for construction of the Ram temple.

A spokesman of the Nirmohi Akhada said that they had lost faith in the BJP government as far as the Ram temple issue was concerned, and would accept whatever the apex court ruled.

Reacting to the postponement of the hearing by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said: "The postponement has not sent the right message".

--IANS

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