Ayodhya verdict an attempted compromise: Panikkar
By IANSFriday, October 1, 2010
NEW DELHI - Eminent historian K.N. Panikkar said Friday that the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya land dispute was “an attempted compromise”.
“This is some sort of an attempted compromise. Whether this compromise is strictly on the basis of law, it is a doubtful fact,” said the former professor of Modern History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here.
Panikkar raised questions about the manner the disputed land in Ayodhya had been split up among three parties: Hindus, Nirmohi Akhara and Muslims.
“It is not clear at all,” Panikkar told IANS on telephone from Kerala.
A three-judge Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Thursday ruled that the place where the Babri mosque in Ayodhya stood before it was razed in 1992 was indeed the birthplace of Hindu god Ram.
Panikkar said the court had overlooked the fact that the idol of Ram was placed in the mosque in 1949 by use of force.
“In fact the judgment validates the aggression by one group of the claimants,” he said.
“One point in the verdict is that Ramjanmasthan is on the basis of faith and belief of the Hindus. This is not a data which the court can not come into conclusion,” said Panikkar, widely known as a Left historian.
