ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Congress questions BJP's move to do a Shahbano on Ayodhya

The Congress party has questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party's move to enact a legislation to facilitate the construction of a Ram mandir at the disputed site in Ayodhya, on the lines of the Shahbano case, and said the two cases were not similar.

Congress spokesperson Salman Khurshid was commenting on the statement made by BJP vice-president K L Sharma that the BJP government will enact a legislation to clear the decks for the Ram mandir in case the Supreme Court went against construction at the site.

Sharma also pointed out that the Congress government had enacted a legislation in the early eighties to nullify the Supreme Court judgment on the Shahbano case relating to alimony paid to a Muslim woman after divorce.

Maintaining that no arbitration was involved in Ayodhya, unlike the Shahbano case, Khurshid said the former case was merely a title suit. Such a legislation, if attempted by the BJP government, is likely to be struck down by courts, he said.

He said in any case, Sharma's statement was contrary to the spirit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's assurance that the government would go by the verdict of the court on the issue, and only revealed the BJP's doublespeak on this issue.

Moreover, the government is being run on the support of allies who do not subscribe to the BJP's philosophy on Ayodhya. The Congress firmly believed that the BJP government cannot fulfil its obligation to the Constitution and rule of law.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report