Indian public figures unite ahead of Ayodhya verdict

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Indian public figures unite ahead of Ayodhya verdict

Thursday, 30 Sep, 2010

NEW DELHI: Bollywood stars and leading public figures came together Thursday ahead of the Ayodhya ruling to appeal for calm, stressing that India's religious diversity was its strength.

The High Court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh is set to rule on a bitter Hindu-Muslim dispute over who owns a holy site claimed by both groups in the town of Ayodhya.

The case is seen as a test of the country's religious harmony and political maturity after the dispute sparked some of the worst communal violence in the country's history in 1992, which left 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.

“We are poised for some wonderful things to happen in this country, let us not be drawn back into the past,” the country's biggest film star Amitabh Bachchan told the Times Now news network.

“Let there be peace and harmony. No religion tells us to have disputes with each other or have any type of violence,” he said, stressing that he took part in festivals from all religions.

Actor John Abrahim called for people to stay calm and “show the world we are a democracy” while superstar Shah Rukh Khan said India “should treat this as a decision we all need to follow with the peace and love we have for each other”.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram held the third government press conference on the Ayodhya issue in recent weeks on Wednesday and again appealed for cool heads to prevail, adding that the country had “moved on” since 1992.

The president of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, said that “almost the entire country has expressed its willingness to accept the judgement by imposing faith in the impartiality of the judiciary.

“Unity in diversity and a composite culture is our most precious heritage and legacy.”

India is home to all the world's major religions, which for the most part co-exist in harmony.

But outbreaks of communal violence have punctuated the country's history, most notably at independence in 1947 when up to a million died after the partition of the subcontinent into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India.

The government has asked for India's hypercompetitive media, particularly its numerous aggressive 24-hour news networks, to exercise restraint in the reporting of the Ayodhya verdict.

Times Now's coverage was dominated by an “Indian first” campaign, stressing the unity of Indians over religious divisions and featuring interviews with leading faith, business and political figures.

“The past is the past. It shouldn't burden and cripple the present,” said Indian-born novelist Salman Rushdie, whose most famous book Midnight's Children is set in the turbulent post-partition period.

“The argument is between the ancient and the modern and about how you live in the modern world,” he told the Hindustan Times on Wednesday.

“I hope the judgment tomorrow is a sensible rather than a mystical one.” – AFP

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