Nobody needs to put up a fight when the proof is out there in front of us, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said on the raging Gyanvapi row in Varanasi, while calling All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi a ‘badmash’ (troublemaker) on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, Tiwari said, “Where the truth is out, we don’t have to fight. It is sub-judice and the court will give its verdict in due course. Only want to say this that where the proof is in front of us, no one has to fight. Let’s have faith in the judiciary, we will accept the court’s verdict.”
When asked for his reaction to Owaisi’s warning that Muslims won’t give up the Gyanvapi masjid like Babri and will fight till the end, Tiwari dismissed it, saying, “Woh (Owaisi) badmash hai (He is a troublemaker).” .
On Thursday, a Varanasi court adjourned the hearing on the Masjid committee’s petition over the maintainability of the suit filed by a group of Hindu women till May 30. The Muslim party had argued that the claim of a ‘Shivling’ found inside the mosque complex was based on a conjecture. The Muslim party further added in its arguments that such baseless rumours were creating public disturbance.
The Muslim party stated that the “existence of Shivling is only alleged and not yet proven.”
Few days back after the Varanasi court ordered the closure of the mosque area where a ‘Shivling’ was claimed to be found after a three-day court mandated survey ended, Owaisi compared the development to that of the demolition of Babri Masjid and claimed that ‘‘Gyanvapi was and will remain a mosque till judgement day’’. He called the move by the Varanasi court a violation of The Places of Worship Act 1991. Incidentally, the “unsecular” Act has now been challenged by a Hindu seer in the Supreme Court.
“This is a textbook repeat of December 1949 in Babri Masjid. This order itself changes the religious nature of the masjid. This is a violation of the 1991 Act. This was my apprehension and it has come true. Gyanvapi Masjid was & will remain a masjid till judgement day,” Owaisi had written on his Twitter handle.
On May 20, the top court had directed the Varanasi district judge to hear the Gyanvapi case.
