Art Of living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s efforts for an out- of-court settlement of Ayodhya dispute suffered a setback on Saturday as Maulana Salman Nadvi announced to disassociate himself from efforts to resolve the dispute.
Maulana Nadvi, a close associate of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, was earlier expelled from All India Muslim Personal law Board for defying the Board’s line on Ayodhya dispute.
Nadvi, who represented the Muslim side in the talks initiated by Sri Sri on Ayodhya, said,” The matter is sub-judice and everyone should wait for the Supreme Court order on the issue.’’
Nadvi had proposed March 28 as the date for meeting of Hindu and Muslim leaders in lucknow to discuss a mutual agreement but the meeting has now been cancelled.
Maulana Nadvi said, “I disassociate myself from the Ram Mandir issue. We will wait for Supreme Court judgement. I will only return to AIMPlB, if four persons, including Asaduddin Owaisi and Kamal Farooqui were removed.”
On March 1, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who has been trying for a solution to the Ayodhya dispute through mediation, met Nadvi in lucknow.
Ex IAS officer Anis Ansari, who was also present during the meeting between Maulana Salman and Sri Sri in lucknow on March 1, said here on Saturday that the move of the Maulana was a setback to the effort of Sri Sri.
“I had a telephonic talk with Sri Sri on Friday and he was upset by the sudden move of Maulana Nadvi who took an U-turn within 24 hours,” Ansari said.
Ansari, however, said that they were yet to talk to Maulana Salman over the sudden change of his mind.” We have tried to contact him, but he was unavailable,” the former bureaucrat said.
In February, the AIMPlB had expelled Nadvi, who had declared that shifting of the mosque was permissible.
During the recent general body meeting of AIMPlB in Hyderabad, many of the 500 participants demanded that Maulana Nadvi be removed from the Board. A Board spokesman had termed his statement as ‘unacceptable and made in his personal capacity’.