The Babri Masjid once again became a table topic, with the rejection of the necessary no-objection clearance from the Uttar Pradesh government for the construction of the mosque on government-allocated land and former Chief Justice of India’s assertion that the erection of Babri Masjid itself was a desecration.
Now, senior BJP leader Vinay Katiyar has threatened that he will not allow any mosque in the Ram land of Ayodhya and suggested that Muslims should migrate to other districts, a comment that constitutes a violation of the Supreme Court verdict over which no censure has come from his party.
Vinay Katiyar, a three-time MP from Faizabad and founder of the Bajrang Dal, made the remarks in Ayodhya while responding to queries on the rejection of the Dhannipur mosque plan by the Ayodhya Development Authority, and he further stated that Muslims had no reason to remain in the district and should cross the Saryu river to neighbouring areas such as Gonda and Basti, asserting that Ayodhya was only for the Ram temple.
His words sparked outrage and concern as they were viewed as undermining the apex court’s 2019 judgment, which had balanced the interests of both communities by allotting the disputed land to the Ram temple trust while simultaneously directing the Uttar Pradesh government to provide five acres to the Sunni Waqf Board for a mosque in a prominent location.
Iqbal Ansari, who had been one of the central litigants in the Ayodhya dispute case, responded calmly and advised the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation to avoid confrontation and to use the government-allotted land productively for community benefit, insisting that India’s ethos lies in respect for all religions and that politics should not dictate communal harmony, as reported by The Indian Express.
Awadhesh Prasad, the Samajwadi Party MP from Ayodhya, denounced Katiyar’s remarks and linked them to his marginalisation within the BJP, suggesting that disappointment and irrelevance in the Modi government had pushed him towards provocative rhetoric in an attempt to regain attention.
Within BJP circles also, Katiyar’s intervention has been described as an effort to return to the political limelight in Uttar Pradesh where his role has steadily diminished over the past decade, and although he had been a key face during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and later represented the party in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, he has largely been sidelined in the present dispensation.
Observers note that Katiyar has a history of incendiary statements and had once been among the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, though all 32 accused, including him, were acquitted by a special CBI court in 2020.
Despite the sharp criticism, the BJP and the state government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have not issued any official response, and political analysts argue that the silence signals a deliberate unwillingness to discipline leaders who issue provocative remarks when they align with broader ideological messaging.
Legal experts, however, contend that Katiyar’s comments amount to intimidation of a minority community and may fall within the ambit of hate speech under Indian law, yet no action has been initiated against him.
The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation, headed by Zufar Faruqi, has reiterated that the mosque construction will proceed in Dhannipur once a revised building plan is submitted to the Ayodhya Development Authority, and the trust has dismissed Katiyar’s intervention as irrelevant.
Religious scholars, including Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahal,i have also rejected the remarks as unworthy of serious response, stressing that such statements serve only political ends and not spiritual or constitutional principles.