Ayodhya: Govt bans bulk SMSes-22/09/2010

22/09/2010

Ayodhya: Govt bans bulk SMSes

(GOOD WISHES OUR COUNTRY FOR TOMMORROW'S VERDICT AND 'PEACEFUL' BALANCED REACTIONS FROM EVERYONE,MINUS ANY KIND OF VIOLENCE AND WORDS OF COMMUNAL HATRED OR LET IT SPREAD. BEFORE SPEAKING ONE MUST REMEMBER 'RAM AND HIS RAMAYANA,OR ALLAH AND PAIGAMBAR' NEVER TEACHES HATRED OR VIOLENCE,THEY TEACH HUMANITY.)

New Delhi: As a measure of abundant caution in the face of Ayodhya verdict, the government today banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for three days with immediate effect.



An cow stands outside a shop selling idols of Hindu deities in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

The Ministry of Communications issued the order in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The order has been issued to all mobile telecom service providers in the country for "banning all bulk SMSes and MMSes in all service areas with immediate effect for next 72 hours".

The step comes two days before the verdict by the Allahabad High Court on the title suit of Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute on Friday.

The government is apprehensive that some extreme elements may foment trouble by inciting communal passions after the delivery of the judgement.

Earlier in the day, Home Minister P Chidambaram appealed for peace and caution against rushing to any inappropriate conclusion over the judgement.



A cow walks past as Indian security personnel patrol the streets of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

Apex court defers to hear plea on Sept 24 verdict

New Delhi/Bhopal: The Supreme Court has deferred hearing the petition seeking to push back the verdict in the Ayodhya title suit dispute on September 24. A Bench of Justices Altmas Kabir and A K Patnaik said: "It is a civil suit. We have no jurisdiction over it."

The Bench directed the matter to be listed before the appropriate Bench. Earlier in the day -- and with just two days left for the verdict on Ayodhya title suit dispute -- the petition seeking the deferment of the Ayodhya verdict was admitted in the Supreme Court.

The application was moved by retired bureaucrat Ramesh Chand Tripathi and the demand to defer the verdict was admitted under Section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code.



Security personnel patrol the streets of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

He said the verdict could flare up communal tension and that both the central and state governments were ill-equipped to handle a law-and-order situation because of the pressures of the Commonwealth Games, the Bihar elections and the floods.

Tripathi approached the apex court five days after a three-judge Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court rejected his petition to defer the verdict and allow mediation to find a solution to the 60-year-old Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit dispute.

The High Court had also imposed "exemplary costs" of Rs 50,000, terming Tripathi's efforts for an out-of-court settlement of the dispute as a "mischievous attempt". The application, which sought some time to allow mediation, also challenged the costs of Rs 50,000 imposed on him.



Security personnel patrol the streets of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

In his petition before the High Court, Tripathi had claimed that verdict might disturb communal harmony and lead to violence in the country. He had referred to an earlier order of the court on July 27 that parties concerned are at liberty to approach the officer on special duty to form a Bench if there was any possibility of disposing the dispute or arriving at an understanding through consensus.

The court had, however, rejected the application terming it as "mischievous" and "an attempt to obstruct the verdict". One of the three judges in the Lucknow Bench, however, disagreed with the majority order rejecting the plea for deferring the Ayodhya verdict to allow mediation and gave a dissenting opinion that an amicable settlement could have been explored.



A Hindu holy man prays at Ram Janmabhoomi workshop in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh . AFP

Justice Dharam Veer Sharma while not concurring with the view of the other two judges - Justice S U Khan and Justice Sudhir Agarwal - also said in his dissenting judgement he wasn't consulted when the three-judge Bench gave the order while dismissing the plea for mediation.

Tripathi's petition had contended that rejecting his appeal was illegal since one judge was not consulted.



Security personnel patrol the streets as a man steering a horse-drawn cart passes them in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

Security upped in Madhya Pradesh

Security has been beefed up in Madhya Pradesh to handle the law and order situation which may arise in view of the upcoming Ayodhya verdict on September 24.

"The state government is determined to deal strictly with all those who try to disturb the situation following the September 24 judgement," Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Umashanker Gupta said.

Gupta told PTI that meetings of the peace committee were being organised all over the state and people from all religions were taking part in them. The minister said despite this, if any untoward incident takes place, strict action would be taken against the guilty, irrespective of the political party to which they belong.



Security personnel patrol the streets of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

Verdict like a semi-final: Union Home Secretary

New Delhi: Two days before the court pronounces its verdict in the Ayodhya land title suit, Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai on Tuesday said the verdict was "more like a semi-final" and indicated that the hour at which the judgment is delivered on September 24 would be crucial in preventing any kind of law and order problems.

"This is more like a semi-final. The High Court judgment comes out on Friday afternoon. It is very well-timed after 3.30 pm so that the Friday prayers are over. Saturday and Sunday are holidays and it is only on Monday that one can go to the Supreme Court and get a stay. By the time you really decide what you want to do, you are back to status quo," Pillai said, speaking at a dinner hosted by the Observer Research Foundation and Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey in the Capital.



Security personnel patrol the streets of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

"India has moved on from 1992. The scenario is totally different from what it was in 1992. People have shown much maturity now. I have seen from the comments made by the Hindu as well as the Muslim groups," the Home Secretary added.

Pillai also spoke about Kashmir and blamed "vested interests" behind the current volatile situation in the Valley. "I keep telling people that why was it in Jammu and Kashmir there was a violent eruption now when for the first time you had a more successful Amarnath Yatra which brought lakhs of Hindu pilgrims into the state, providing tremendous employment to the locals," he said.



The Supreme Court has deferred hearing the petition seeking to push back the verdict in the Ayodhya title suit dispute on September 24. PTI

"You also had a tourist influx into J&K which is almost 85 per cent higher than the previous year. In March, April and May, you could not get a hotel room in Srinagar. You had all your hotels and restaurants full. You had taxi services running at full capacity all over Kashmir. And then suddenly in June you have the violent eruption. As things improve, there are, in one sense, vested interests who don't want things to improve."



Two days before the court pronounces its verdict in the Ayodhya land title suit, Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai on Tuesday said the verdict was "more like a semi-final" and indicated that the hour at which the judgment is delivered on September 24 would be crucial in preventing any kind of law and order problems.

On the internal armed movements in the country, mainly Naxalism, Pillai said, "There the real challenge for us is not really the ideological premise of liberation by armed might. The real challenge for us is really improving our governance. We just don't have governance in many of these areas. The state has moved away for a variety of reasons and the vacuum has been filled up by the CPI (Maoists)."

Source: Agencies

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