New Delhi, May 12
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Thursday hailed a Varanasi court direction for completion of a video survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises by May 17 and hoped that the “truth” will soon come out.
The RSS affiliate appealed to the mosque management committee to “cooperate” in the implementation of the court’s direction and slammed the objections being raised against the video survey of the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex by a court-appointed advocate commissioner.
“The country should now hope that they will definitely place the truth before the court after completing the survey in five days. All sides should cooperate in that instead of raising objections,” VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said in a video message.
“We hope that the truth will come out soon,” he added.
The VHP’s reaction came after a district court earlier in the day rejected a plea to change the court-appointed advocate commissioner for conducting a video survey of the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex and appointed two additional advocate commissioners to assist him.
The court also directed the completion of the survey by May 17 and submission of its report, Abhay Nath Yadav, who represented the Gyanvapi mosque management committee, said.
The court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar, which had also heard the matter relating to the opening of the two basements located inside the mosque complex for videography, delivered the verdict after hearing the arguments of both sides.
The mosque management committee had filed an application seeking the replacement of court official Ajay Kumar Mishra, who was assigned to do the survey, claiming he was not impartial.
In the Shringar Gauri worship case, the court had earlier on April 26 ordered videography of the Shringar Gauri temple in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque complex and other places by the advocate commissioner after Eid and before May 10.
The court had said that besides the advocate commissioner and parties, one associate could also remain present during the proceedings.
According to the court’s directions, videography and survey had to be conducted inside the mosque premises on May 6 and 7.
However, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intejamiya Masjid (Gyanvapi mosque) managing committee S M Yasin had said that nobody will be allowed to enter the mosque for videography and survey and that the mosque management committee would oppose the court’s decision “constitutionally.”
This article first appeared on tribuneindia.com