Let reconciliation process on Ayodhya continue: Prasad

NEW DELHI - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad Tuesday stressed that the Ayodhya verdict was neither a victory nor defeat for any party and said a new India of “goodwill and brotherhood” has emerged after the judgment.

Speaking at a discussion on ‘Ayodhya: the Verdict’ organised here by the Delhi BJP, Prasad said that every party dissatisfied with the judgment has the right to appeal in the Supreme Court.

He, however, said that the entire country has understood the new and mature India after the verdict but the “pseudo-seculars” and “so-called intellectuals” are not understanding the signals.

“But time will make them understand all these,” said Prasad, who was the advocate for Hindu Mahasabha in one of the Ayodhya cases.

An initiative has been started by 90-year-old Hashim Ansari, who has fought a legal battle for the site since 1961, for a negotiated settlement on the Ayodhya issue, a move which has been supported by the Nirmohi Akhara which also wants to resolve the dispute once and for all.

A majority ruling of the three-judge bench of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has ruled that the disputed site should be divided into three — one for the Sunni Wakf Board, one for the Ram temple and the third for the Nirmohi Akhara.