The founder of Art of Living(AOL), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, has said that India will turn into a Syria if the Ram temple issue is not resolved soon, in an interview to India Today.
“If Ram Mandir issue is not solved, we will have a Syria in India,” the spiritual guru told the news channel.
His statement comes at a time when violent attacks have led to the killings of hundreds of innocent Syrians. According to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 700 civilians have died in air strikes, artillery fire and rocket attacks on the besieged rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta over the past 15 days by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime.
A few days back, the AOL founder had courted controversy by saying that Muslims should gift the disputed land in Ayodhya to Hindus for building a Ram temple, reported The Times of India.
Last month, renewing his mediation efforts on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute in Ayodhya, the Art of Living founder held a meeting in Bengaluru with Muslim leaders, including members from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Sunni Waqf Board.
After the meeting, the AOL said eminent members of the Sunni Waqf Board, All India Muslim Personal Law Board and others met Ravi Shankar and expressed support for an out-of-court settlement in the Ayodhya matter.
“They have supported the proposal of shifting the Masjid outside to another place. Many Muslim stakeholders are cooperating in this matter,” an AOL statement said.
Ravi Shankar had also, in November last, met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who then said “everyone knows where the talks would lead to”, especially when the matter is pending before the Supreme Court.
When the matter came up before the Supreme Court today, it asked parties before the Allahabad High Court in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute to file in two weeks English translation of documents exhibited by them.
A special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it would hear the appeals on March 14 and clarified that it never intended to hear the case on a “day-to-day basis”.
(With Agency inputs)
