Owaisi urges PM Modi to defend ‘Places of worship Act 1991’

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defend the Places of Worship Act of 1991, since it puts an end to unnecessary religious disputes and protects India’s religious diversity. This came after the Supreme Court sought the center’s stand following petitions filed in the apex court challenging certain provisions of the act.

The Hyderabad MP has written a letter to the Prime Minister in which he urged him to defend the sanctity of the act arguing, “Act represents the idea that one cannot endlessly litigate against history. That Modern India cannot be the battleground for resolving medieval disputes.”

Owaisi also wrote, “while Parliament intended the Act as a measure to preserve communal harmony and peace, the Hon’ble Supreme Court considered it to be ‘an affirmation of the solemn duty which was cast upon the state to preserve and protect the equality of all faiths as an essential constitutional value, a norm, which has the status of being a basic feature of the Constitution.’ I request you not to let the executive take any view which deviates from the true spirit of Constitutionalism as reflected in the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgement as well as in the aims and objects of this legislation.”

He also reminded the Prime Minister of Constitutional morality which safeguards minorities from the tyranny of majority, pointing it is being put to test. “I hope that the executive headed by you will act to uphold the ideal of Constitutional morality and defend the Act of 1991,” Owaisi wrote.