Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav avoided a direct comment on the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute and instead used poetry to react.
“Jo faisley faslon ko ghatatey hain, woh insaan ko behtar insaan banate hain (Decisions which bridge the gap make people better human beings),” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
Later, the SP chief said in a statement that the Supreme Court verdict would prove to be an important milestone in strengthening secularism, democracy and the rule of law. He said that the verdict on the Ayodhya dispute would be remembered as historic.
“Samajwadis have always favoured a negotiated settlement of the dispute. Since the dispute could not be resolved through negotiations, the Supreme Court had to adjudicate on the issue,” the SP chief said.
Akhilesh Yadav said that as per Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court verdict was binding on all parties and the Samajwadi Party hoped that the whole country would accept the verdict on the Ayodhya dispute.
“Parties in the dispute have been saying that they will abide by the Supreme Court verdict. So we hope that the people of different faiths will do nothing to hurt the religious sentiments of others and cause communal tension,” Akhilesh said.
The SP leader’s comments assume significance as it was his father and then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had ordered the police to open fire on kar sevaks gathered in Ayodhya on October 30 and November 2, 1990.
On December 6, 1992, the Babri masjid was demolished by a violent kar sevaks mobilised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate Vishwa Hindu Parishad from across the country.
The then Bharatiya Janata Party government in UP, headed by Kalyan Singh, was dismissed by the Centre in the late hours of December 6, 1992.
The Samajwadi Party led a state-wide campaign against the BJP. Ahead of the midterm poll to UP Assembly in December 1993, the SP forged an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and a coalition government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav was formed on December 3, 1993.
Muslims across the state had voted en bloc for the SP-BSP alliance for preventing the BJP from coming to power.