"If Mosque Was Illegal Why Is LK Advani Being Tried": Asaduddin Owaisi

Asaduddin Owaisi said BJP and RSS have a list of mosques which they want to "transform"

If the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya was illegal why were BJP veteran LK Advani and others being tried in connection with its demolition, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen or AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi asked on Saturday.

Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday night, the AIMIM president said, "If Babri Masjid was legal then why was it (land) handed over to those who demolished it. If it was illegal then why the case is going on and withdraw the case against Advani. And if it is legal then give it to me."

"It's a basic question... We are not satisfied with this judgement. Babri Masjid is my legal right. I am fighting for the Masjid and not the land," Mr Owaisi said reacting to the Supreme Court's verdict on Saturday paving the way for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

LK Advani, who turned the sporadic demands for a Ram temple at Ayodhya into a mass movement from the late 1980s, had welcomed the Supreme Court's landmark verdict, saying he stands "vindicated". Mr Advani faces charges in the 1992 razing of the Babri Masjid by Hindu activists that led to riots across the country, leaving over 2,000 dead.

On Sunday, Mr Owaisi tweeted, "Then what does a Muslim see today? That there stood a mosque, for so many years, which has been demolished. Now the court is allowing a building to come up on that site, on an alleged finding that the land belonged to Ram Lalla."

"We are being insulted by giving (alternate) land. Don't treat us like us beggars... We are respectable citizens of India. The fight is for legal right," he said in another tweet.

"... we asked for justice, not charity. If your house is demolished and you go to an arbitrator, whether the house should be given to you or not. Should it be given to the demolisher?" he asked while reiterating that he was not satisfied with the judgement.

Claiming that even today BJP and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have a list of several mosques which they want to "transform," Mr Owaisi said they (muslims) should fight for the Masjid.

A five-member constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had ruled on Saturday that the disputed land in Ayodhya should be given to a government-run trust for constructing a temple. Acknowledging that the Babri mosque was illegally demolished by right-wing activists in 1992, it also directed the government to allot five acres of "suitable" land elsewhere for the construction of a new religious structure.