Mediation efforts to settle Ayodhya dispute going nowhere

The efforts by Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar and Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi to find a settlement to the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute seems to be heading nowhere.

Prominent Hindu seers on Wednesday dismissed Ravishankar's mediation efforts as 'nautanki' (a hilarious play without any message) and asked him to keep away from the issue.

"Ravishankar runs an NGO....he is neither a saint nor a spiritual personality...he has no role to play in the dispute...what he is doing is nothing but a nautanki," said prominent Hindu seer and All India Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giri.

"Ravishankar teaches the art of living...maybe he has some art through which he can get a Ram Temple constructed at Ayodhya," Giri said, mocking Ravishankar's mediation efforts.

Former BJP MP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ram Vilas Vedanti also said that Ravishankar should end his mediation efforts.

"Where was he (Ravishankar) when we were jailed and suffered atrocities for fighting for the Ram Temple....now he has suddenly appeared on the scene," Vedanti said.

Senior Muslim cleric and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali also voiced scepticism on the mediation efforts saying that the matter was before the Supreme Court and that Muslims would abide by its verdict.

All India Shia Personal Law Board member Maulana Yasoob Abbas also said that the Shia community was with the AIMPLB on the issue.

Iqbal Ansari, son of the oldest Ayodhya litigant Hashim Ansari, has also rejected the mediation efforts.