Kishore Kunal. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 21: Acharya Kishore Kunal, the former IPS officer who has been actively associated with the Ayodhya problem, today said negotiations remain the best option for working out a solution to the centuries-old dispute, which, he claimed, had almost been resolved through talks during the nineties.

“Negotiation is a better solution as in litigation one (party) will lose and the other will win and hence acrimony persists even after the court judgment… It can be amicably resolved by respecting the sentiments of both sides,” Kunal told The Telegraph.

He, however, added that he would not say much as the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on the Ayodhya title suits on September 24.

Kunal, during his stint in the union home ministry, had been involved in the talks to work out a solution to the dispute. The former IPS officer, who took voluntary retirement from service several years ago, had been part of the negotiations during the regime of three Prime Ministers — V.P. Singh, Chandrashekhar and P.V. Narasimha Rao.

“There were occasions when it (the dispute) was almost resolved,” said Kunal, who now heads the Bihar State Religious Trust Board (BSRTB) as its chairman.

Stating that Ramjanmbhoomi Punarutthan Samiti, the defendant in the title suit, had opposed the petition filed by one Ramesh Chandra Tripathi seeking deferment of the verdict to allow mediation, Kunal said, “We don’t support the petition at this juncture particularly at a time when the court has reserved its judgment after hearing both sides at length… My view is that if any mediation has to happen, it should be started after the pronouncement of the judgement and certainly not at this juncture.”

One of the three judges hearing the Ayodhya case had created a flutter yesterday by announcing a belated “dissent verdict” differing with the bench’s decision on Friday to reject petitions seeking postponement of the September 24 judgment on the title suit.

Kunal, who has written a book, Indisputable Historical Facts on Ayodhya Dispute, which will be released only after the pronouncement of the judgment, said: “The book has been very helpful and handy during the course of the hearing as it (book) incorporates my e-mails sent to advocate PN Mishra on historical facts.”

Kunal said the third option is the resolution of the problem through legislation as it has happened in the case relating to the control and ownership of the Buddhist temple at Bodh Gaya.

The Buddhists had lost the case to a Mahant but it was later resolved through legislation with the efforts of a Buddhist Agarik Dharampal in 1950.

Under the Place of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, the character of all religious places should be preserved as they stood on August 15, 1947, but Ayodhya being a special case was made an exception to the Act, Kunal said.

He felt the legislation had been brought in haste by the Narasimha Rao government, which, according to him, should have given more time to work out a solution through negotiations.