Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said that it was too late for talks on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute even as he had earlier praised Art of Living Founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for going to Ayodhya to mediate in the matter.
Speaking to media on Sri Sri’s Ayodhya visit, Adityanath said that he could not see the point in holding talks on the Ram Mandir issue now as the matter would soon be heard in court.
“It’s too late for talks now. I don’t see the point in talks now when the Supreme Court is already set to hear the case from December 5,” Adityanath said. He, however, added that dialogue can help bring solutions to the biggest of issues.
This came on a day when Sri Sri was in Ayodhya to meet all parties in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute. During his Ayodhya visit, Sri Sri will hold talks with Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas chairman Nritya Gopal Das and other top spiritual leaders apart from Iqbal Ansari, the son of Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the Babri Masjid case who died last year.
A day after meeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is in Ayodhya today, said that talks are going on to resolve the ongoing Ram temple dispute and he is hopeful that the issue will be resolved soon.
The spiritual guru added that if the Ayodhya dispute is resolved through court, the decision would be one-sided. The Ayodhya decision should be taken mutually, he said.
The Art of Living founder said that resolving the Ayodhya issue is a tough task but he is still hopeful.
Earlier on Wednesday, Adityanath had welcomed Sri Sri’s move to play mediator between the two parties in the dispute. He had even met the AOL founder on Wednesday in Lucknow. “Any effort of mediation and at any level is good and worth welcoming. Talks had begun earlier also and one party always excluded itself from it, so the problem is not that there should be talks, but that both parties should agree to it. Good results can come out of such talks, but the intention should be right,” Adityanath had earlier said.
"Who is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to mediate? He should continue running his NGO & hoarding foreign funds, I believe he has amassed a lot of wealth & to avoid a probe he has jumped into #RamTemple issue," Former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti had said.
However, many hit out at Sri Sri for his move to mediate on the dispute. Former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti said, “Who is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to mediate? He should continue running his NGO & hoarding foreign funds, I believe he has amassed a lot of wealth & to avoid a probe he has jumped into the Ram Temple issue.”
Iqbal Ansari, one of the stakeholders in the dispute, accused Sri Sri of indulging in politics. He said that Sri Sri was doing it now due to civic polls in Uttar Pradesh. He also said that it was for the court to decide on the matter. The Supreme Court, earlier this year, had suggested that an out-of-court settlement was the best recourse to the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute. The apex court will commence the final hearing of the case from December 5.
