Just like Ram Mandir, Centre should form a trust for mosque in Ayodhya: NCP chief Sharad Pawar

LUCKNOW: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar has slammed the Centre for announcing a trust, which will oversee the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, but not announcing the same for building a mosque in the holy city. Addressing a gathering in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on Wednesday, the NCP veteran demanded that the Centre must form a trust for building a mosque in Ayodhya similar to the trust to oversee the construction of Ram temple.

"You can form a trust for a temple then why can’t you set up a trust for the mosque. The country belongs to everyone,’’ the NCP chief said.

Pawar’s statement came hours after the members of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which was announced by PM Narendra Modi recently, met for the first time in Delhi to work out modalities of temple construction in Ayodhya.

During the meeting, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was elected as the head of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust while senior VHP leader Champat Rai was made the general secretary.

Hours after the first meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Delhi, the Digambar Akhara objected to the exclusion of Yogi Adityanath from the trust. Yogi Adityanath, apart from being the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, is also the head of the Goraksh Peeth in Gorakhpur and previous heads of this Peeth - Mahant Digvijaynath and Mahant Avaidyanath - have played crucial roles in the Ayodhya movement.

The Digambar Akhara Chief Mahant Suresh Das that the Nath sect (to which the Goraksh Peeth belongs) had made immense contribution in the temple movement and deserved to have a representation in the temple trust. "It is unfortunate that this aspect has been completely ignored and Yogi Adityanath has been kept out of the trust. Mahant Suresh Das also expressed his disappointment at the fact that the Digambar Akhara had not been given a seat in the trust. "We are not begging for a place in the trust but...",he said.

Hindu Mahasabha Chief Swami Chakrapani had also objected to the present formation of the trust and had said that he was `hurt`. Chakrapani said that the Hindu Mahasabha had been fighting for the temple since 1949 but they were sidelined in the formation of the trust where Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh have occupied the centre stage.

It may be noted that a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court had in November, 2019 ruled unanimously in favour of Ram Lalla. It said the entire disputed land spread over 2.7-acre will be handed over to a trust formed by the government, which will monitor the construction of Ram temple at the site.

The court had asked the government to give 5-acre land to Sunni Waqf Board in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque in Ayodhya.

On February 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the formation of `Shri Ram Janambhoomi Tirath Kshetra`, which would oversee the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, nearly three months after the Supreme Court ruling in the decades-old case.