Babri Anniversary Peaceful, BJP Reiterates Commitment to Temple

Marking the 17th anniversary of the demolition of the disputed Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday stressed that it continued to remain committed to the construction of a temple to Lord Ram at the site.

“The Ram temple remains a commitment for us. The BJP will prefer a solution through mutual negotiation or a judicial verdict,” party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad was quoted as saying by IANS.

The party also rubbished the report of the Liberhan Commission which investigated the demolition of the Babri mosque and the violence that followed.

Prasad described the report as “redundant, lopsided” and a “political document.”

The comments came as several groups organised protest marches while one group held a celebratory march to mark the anniversary.

Staging a protest at the Jantar Mantar in the national capital, members of the All India Babri Masjid Rebuilding Committee (AIBMRC) demanded that a mosque be rebuilt on the disputed site.

They submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil to demand action against those indicted by the Liberhan Commission report.

Meanwhile, members of the Rashtrawadi Sena, a little known group, marked the day as “Vijay Divas” and held a march in another p-art of the city.

Bhagwan Goyal, chief of the Sena, is one of the 68 people named by the probe commission.

Meanwhile heavy security remained in place in trouble-prone areas across the country, no untoward incident was however reported.