New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to deliver its verdict in the politically contentious Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute in about next two weeks.

Earlier, the mediation panel also attempted for an out-of-court settlement amongst the aggrieved parties but failed to reach any conclusion.

While all parties to the Ayodhya dispute eagerly await the verdict, here is a lowdown on the history of conflict, the dispute over land stretch, repeated talks to hammer out solution and the court’s observation in the case so far.

Points of Dispute

# Ayodhya dispute is not any ordinary temple-mosque dispute. It is a struggle to reclaim and regain the Native Land/Birthplace of Lord Ram and this Native Land is a Deity in itself and there can be no splitting up or division of the Deity.

# The entire dispute is over about 1460 square yards (1209.026 Square Meter) of land – the length-width of which is maximum 140 X 100 feet. The 70 acres of land acquired by the Government of India is separate from it and is with the Government of India over which no lawsuit is pending in court.

# The entire site under consideration in the court is that of Ramlala (Infant Ram) Virajman. It is the Place of Birth, Place of Pastimes, playing field and recreational area of Bhagwan. Describing the significance of this place, the Skanda Purana, written thousands of years ago, says that the Darshan (discerning/sighting) of the haloed birthplace of Sri Ram is liberating.

History of conflicts/movements

# The struggle to get back the birthplace continues unabated since 1528 CE (since the day invader Babur ordered demolition of the temple and superimposition or parking of the triple-domed Jihadi statement/structure over it).

# The entire Hindu society has incessantly been waging this fight. The saint fraternity of Ayodhya and the kings-emperors of the areas around have had special contributions in this fight back

# From October, 1985, public awareness campaign started again in Uttar Pradesh by 6 chariots. As a result, the locks put on the Sri Ram’s Birthplace in the year 1949 CE was opened on 1 February 1986 by order of the court. There were several attempts made to stop public worship and prayers to Ramlala, but the court did not accept it.

# On June 24, 1990, in Haridwar, in a meeting of the Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal it was decided to go to Ayodhya to perform Karseva on October 30, 1990 (Devotthan Ekadashi). The then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh made formidable cordon off plans around Ayodhya to plug up all entry points whatsoever to make Ayodhya out of bounds for all incoming devotees and declared that ‘Not even a bird/avian can dare fly here’. The Hindu society accepted this challenge and thousands of people reached Ayodhya despite all kinds of repression. The Karsevaks (volunteers) hoisted the saffron flags on the domes at the appointed time. There were police firings and sacrifices of karsevaks. The firing incident of November 02, 1990 is known by all.

# Finally, the government bowed down and all the kar sevaks got permission to have darshan, only then the kar sevaks returned home
It was announced again that the Karseva would take place on December 06, 1992. Sri Kalyan Singh Ji announced that bullets won’t be fired. Security forces were stationed around Ayodhya. The pent up feelings of the society burst out due to the atrocities on the Ram devotees and fortuitously the Babri structure collapsed.

Context of Court process

# In February 2019, the court expressed the desire that all parties find a solution to the dispute on the basis of mutual negotiations. By its order, the court declared a three-member mediation committee. The Mediation Committee held separate talks with all the parties in seven rounds between March 13, 2019 and August 01, 2019. All the talks were kept confidential. The mediation finally ended on August 01, 2019 undecided and unsuccessful.

# On 16th October evening, the Constitution Bench declared the hearing complete. Simultaneously, there was a written order that all parties should give their positions in 6 writing in the next three days on alternate relief or moulding of relief sought by them. The final decision in the Supreme Court was declared reserved.

# The world is now waiting for the verdict in the world’s greatest historical (491 years) case. The verdict is likely to come by mid-November, 2019.

History of Hindu-Muslim talks

# Many intellectuals of the country have been of the opinion that the matter should be resolved by mutual talks or judicial process. Therefore, the Vishva Hindu Parishad tried through all the media of talks that the Muslim leaders of India should know, understand, appreciate and respect the feelings, sentiments and beliefs of the Hindu society. But the experience was that the Muslim leadership was not interested in ending this age-old struggle and starting a new era of mutual trust and harmony.

# A three-member Mediation Committee comprising of (1) Supreme Court Justice ® Ibrahim Kalifulla (Chennai), (2) Senior Advocate of Madras High Court, Shri Sriram Panchu, (3) Art of Living Founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was formed in March 2019 on the initiative of the Supreme Court. The talks took place in seven rounds and the talks were kept confidential. The mediators offered thanks to everyone on 01 August 2019, and on 02 August, they presented their mediation termination letter to the Supreme Court. Even this talks attempt proved unsuccessful.

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