New Delhi: Senior Congress Leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the PM will not build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, but ‘God’ will. Sibal was responding to the recent attacks by the PM and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who accused the Congress of not making its stand clear regarding the Ayodhya issue.
Sibal said the Prime Minister sometimes speaks without checking facts. He said he actually never represented the Sunni Waqf Board. “And as usual, because the Prime Minister makes statements without checking facts, he did not check the fact that actually, I never represented the Sunni Waqf Board, and yet he thanked the Sunni Waqf Board for the statement, on the basis that I represented them. I would request the Prime Minister to be a little more careful,” Sibal said while speaking to media.
The Congress leader, also a senior lawyer appeared in the court on Tuesday and requested the Supreme Court to delay the hearing till after 2019 Lok Sabha polls. To this PM Modi accused the Congress of linking the issue of the temple to elections.
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Wed 11 Dec. 2024
Modi while addressing a rally in Gujarat said, “Kapil Sibal, a Congress MP, argued in Supreme Court yesterday in the Babri Masjid case. He can argue in court but is it right for him to say postpone hearing till 2019? Why is he linking elections with Ram Mandir. Now, the Congress is linking Ram Mandir with politics.”
Prime Minister Modi also congratulated the Sunni Waqf Board for reportedly ‘disassociating’ themselves from Kapil Sibal’s statement. “The Sunni Waqf Board must be congratulated for their brave stand on the matter and disassociating themselves from the statement of Kapil Sibal ji,” he had said.
To this, Sibal said he never represented the Waqf Board and then asked the PM to check facts before making statements. “Will discussion on my going to the court & representing someone solve serious problems in the country? If yes, then PM should say so. Issuing statements won’t help India in anyway, it’ll just take the nation towards controversies,” the Congress leader said on Wednesday.
Sibal also requested the Prime Minister to address the concerns of India and not divide the people of the country. “Please address the concerns of India. Don’t divide the people of our country like this. You may win perhaps in your mind, but you will lose badly and India will lose if you only care about yourself not India,” he said.
“We believe in the Lord, we don’t believe in you Modi ji. You are not going to build that temple, it will be done when God wants it. The court will decide,” he added.
The Supreme Court, which was hearing 13 appeals, said it will hear the civil appeals filed by various parties challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict on the matter on February 8 next year. The stakeholders in Ayodhya case moved the apex court after the Allahabad High Court directed the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Lord Ram Lalla to settle for a three-way division of the disputed site.
Built by Mughal emperor Babur in Ayodhya in 1528, the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992 after claims that a Ram temple that originally stood there was demolished to construct the mosque. This triggered communal riots in various parts of the country in 1992.
