Ayodhya dispute settled, now focus on public issues: Goa Cong chief

The Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said on Saturday said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could no longer use the Ayodhya issue as a poll plank and asked the Centre to focus on issues that affect the common man. He also asked the BJP to fulfill its promises made during the 2014 general elections. Notably, the construction of grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya has been BJP's long-time promise.

Thanking the Supreme Court for adjudicating the Ayodhya dispute, he said: "BJP was making Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue a poll plank issue during every election. Now BJP can no longer make it an emotional issue to garner votes." He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep aside emotional issues like Ayodhya, Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan and focus on other issues affecting the common man and bring 'Acche Din' as promised. "Economic slowdown, unemployment, rising inflation, agriculture, black money issues etc should be the priority for BJP led government at the centre and they should not try to deviate issues," the state Congress chief said in a statement.

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 Supreme Court Verdict

Pronouncing the landmark judgment in the Ayodhya dispute case, the Supreme Court on Saturday, delivered a unanimous judgment in the title suit of the disputed area awarding it to the Hindus for the construction of a temple. It also directed the Centre to come up with a scheme within three months to set up a trust which will hand over the outer courtyard and inner courtyard of the site for construction of a temple.

"Central government shall form in three to four months a scheme for setting up of a trust. They shall make necessary arrangements for the management of trust and construction of the temple," Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said while reading out the verdict. In its order, the Supreme Court also asked the Central or State government to provide an alternate land of 5-acres to the Muslims for the construction of a mosque.

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Ayodhya case in SC

The five-judge bench was constituted on January 25, 2019, to hear the long-contested Ayodhya dispute. As the case progressed after the Centre handed over disputed Ayodhya site to original owners, the bench created a 3-member mediation panel. On August 2, a day after the mediation panel submitted the report of mediation to the SC in a sealed cover, the SC stated that the mediation had failed and began day-to-day hearings - which ran for 40 days, along with a parallel mediation process continuing. The SC announced that it would wrap up the hearing on October 17 and announce its judgment by November 17. Finally, on October 16, the Supreme Court concluded its hearing, reserved its order.

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(with ANI inputs)