Daily quote by Ayodhya dispute

• The Stalinist clique which advertised itself as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) historians had been carrying on a campaign for quite some time on points that were totally irrelevent to this central issue. What was worse, the clique was ignoring altogether the hard evidence presented by a number of eminent historians and archaeologists. The press by and large, particularly the Times of India group of publications, had been playing up the Stalinist statements as if they were the only ones on the subject. The Indian Express was the only national daily to publish some well-informed articles on what Islamic iconoclasm had done to Hindu places of worship in general and to the Ramajanmabhoomi Mandir at Ayodhya in particular. The government announcement, therefore, did serve the purpose of silencing the Stalinists for some time. They were stunned by the prospect that the other side too was going to get a hearing, and that an amicable settlement of the dispute might be reached.