Jamiat divided over Ayodhya review plea

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, November 22

There clearly appears to be no consensus in the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind regarding filing a review petition against the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict.

At the November 17 All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) meeting, the Jamiat faction led by senior Deoband teacher Maulana Arshad Madani had endorsed the AIMPLB stand in favour of filing a review petition within the 30-day period. However, the other faction led by Maulana Mahmood Madani has expressed its unwillingness to file a review petition. The Mahmood Madani-led Jamiat working committee had adopted a resolution describing the judgment as “the darkest spot in history of free India”, but it nevertheless decided not to go in for a review petition.

While the Mahmood Madani group in principle was not against other parties filing a petition, it decided to stay away from the exercise saying “it will only cause further damage”. On the other hand, a sharp division over the filing of review petition has surfaced in Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama as well.

Rector Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadvi, AIMPLB president who had chaired the November 17 meeting, is in favour of filing the petition.

A senior teacher and cleric at Nadwa, Salman Nadvi, meanwhile, has been told to quit reportedly over his stand against filing the plea.

While officially it is being said that Nadvi had reached the superannuation age of 60 years, he himself claimed that his stand on the Ayodhya petition had caused his early exit from the prestigious seminary as many teachers older than him were still working.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board on November 26 will take a final call on whether they would accept the 5-acre plot for building a mosque in Ayodhya. Board Chairperson Zufar Faruqi said they had decided not to go in for a review. He said they would meet on November 26 to decide what to do about the alternative plot offer.