No Handing over of Acquired Land

Date: 
Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

Ayodhya Issue -- No Handing Over of Acquired Land Till Court Verdict

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep concern at the fact that, once again, the Ayodhya dispute is being brought into focus, without waiting for the judicial verdict, through a series of diabolical moves and subterfuge.

Following the similar whipping up of passions undertaken by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in February-March last year, aided actively by the Vajpayee government whose Attorney General argued for allowing a "symbolic pooja" on the disputed site, the Supreme Court had ruled that there would be "no transfer of acquired property until the final order of the Court".

Despite this, once again, the self-appointed interlocutors like the Kanchi Shankaracharya are busy advancing so-called solutions which are nothing but a rehash of the VHP's demands. The demand for handing over to the VHP and the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, 40 of the 67 acres of the acquired land is only to facilitate the construction on the basis of a blueprint wherein the sanctum-sanctorum of the temple would be located at the heart of the Babri Masjid structure. Construction work beginning in any portion of the acquired land with the original site plan is part of a carefully grafted game of attrition wherein, step by step, the temple would be constructed circumventing the law. This is nothing but an effort to make the temple construction a fait accompli before the Court verdict comes.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) warns the Vajpayee government that any attempt to subvert the rule of law and the judicial process will not be tolerated by the Indian people. No measure or step must be taken till the final order of the Courts.
Given the earlier track record of betrayal of assurances to the country and the judiciary by the VHP, the BJP leadership and its state government in Uttar Pradesh at the time of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, there can be no question of allowing self-proclaimed representatives of religious communities to try to circumvent the law and get the State to sanction it.