By Anjuman Ara Begum, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: Mixed reaction over the Babri verdict has been observed in Assam though roads took a more or less deserted look in many places and people returned home early from their work to avoid any unforeseen incident. Situation remained calm and people were relieved from anxiety after knowing the verdict.
Many believe that the verdict failed to establish the legal right over the disputed land and they see the verdict as a compromise keeping in mind the ‘national interest’.
Babli Begum, school teacher, said that ‘the disputed site has been distributed as if it is a family property and such a judgment can happen only in a non-secular country’.
Aminul Islam, Youth President of AUYDF Youth Wing while expressing his personal opinion said that there are three points to be noted in the verdict. First, the verdict could not prove or gather information about when and how Babar constructed the Masjid which took place a few hundred years ago. If so, then how it is established that Ram was born in the very disputed spot thousands and thousands of years ago? Secondly, the three judges could not agree with one another and created three owners in the disputed site of only 2.7 acres. If these three parties continue to stay together in such a close proximity, there is every possibility of communal violence almost everyday. Thirdly, keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue, a hospital should have been created in the site that would have saved lots of lives of all the religions. Law must be passed to make it a common place accessible by all the citizens of the country irrespective of the religion if that was the aim of the judgment’.
Some accepted the verdict with a feeling that alternatives were less .Nurbak Ali, a resident of Guwahati said that ‘we have no other choice but to respect the verdict. There’s no use of fighting any more. It’s good that the issue is over now.” Amzad Hussain and Ataur Rehman, both businessmen from Singimari said that the verdict must be respected but there should be one owner not three. Sirajuddin from Nellie informed that Babar should have named the mosque as ‘Ayodha mosque’ not ‘Babri mosque’ and that is the crux of the problem.
Many also talked about what the Sunni Waqf Board should do now. Saidur Rehman, a bussiman, said that the Sunni Waqf Board should donate the land and withdraw itself from the litigation as a proof that minority rights are not protected in India’.