Lucknow, Oct. 13: Nirmohi Akhara, a key party in the Ayodhya legal battle, wants the former president, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, spiritual gurus Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as well as the leading Deoband Islamic seminary to help achieve a negotiated settlement.
“Now that the torch of peace and harmony has been lit in Ayodhya, we want popular spiritual leaders of both Hindus and Muslims to come forward and strengthen efforts for an out-of-court final settlement without allowing the dispute to be re-ignited before the Supreme Court where it could just hang fire indefinitely again,” Mr Ram Das, secretary of the Akhara chief, Mahant Bhaskar Das, said in Ayodhya on Wednesday.
The Akhara has shown keen interest in talks initiated by Hashim Ansari on behalf of Muslims for a final settlement on the vexed Ayodhya issue after the High Court ruling.
Ram Das said: “It is the duty of these prominent people to make efforts for resolving the dispute. After all, they are all institutions with a large following, so their word will matter.”
He, however, declined to divulge any detail of the compromise formula believed to have been prepared by Nirmohi Akhara.
Mr Das joined another prominent seer, Mahant Gyan Das, to visit Mr Hashim Ansari to thank him for taking the lead in showing the path of peace.
It was Mr Ansari, who chose to wave the olive branch and walk to the residence of Gyan Das. Gyan not only heads Ayodhya’s prominent Hanuman Garhi temple but is also chief of the All India Akhara Parishad.
The reconciliatory approach followed the HC order, dividing the disputed Ayodhya plot into three parts — two going to separate Hindu parties and one to Muslims.