Letter to Editor

The move of the Supreme Court to let a mediation effort being made by a three-member committee of negotiators is welcome but already doubts are being expressed about the neutral nature of the mediation committee, openly naming Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living fame as an unsuitable member of the committee. The views expressed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar some time ago on the Ayodhya dispute are well known. How is it that the present CJI Gogoi, who has so far acquitted himself well in matters of transparency, took this decision? The people at large consider Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as representing the Hindutva point of view. One of the two remaining members is an internationally known expert on mediation. The only member left who is also the Chairman of the committee is a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India. I hope that the Hindutva forces will not treat him as representing the Muslim point of view. That will be the end of the three-member team. The efforts of this team are bound to fail because of the inclusion of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. There are many other Hindu leaders including spiritual leaders whose services could have been requisitioned for this noble cause.

Has anybody cared to ascertain the views and feelings of the local Hindu population? They are definitely against this dispute, a creation of the colonial administration, otherwise a communist could not have been elected from Ayodhya to the State Vidhan Sabha in the recent past. Why is it that the Ram temple movement is organised and led by Hindutva forces from Maharashtra and Gujarat? I don’t wish to prolong this submission and leave it to the good sense of my friends to form their own opinion in the national interest. As the General Election 2019 gets nearer and nearer the voice of the rabble rousers is likely to become more deafening but let us not forget that we have a Constitution of India to guide us.