WHOEVER believes an amicable settlement of the Ayodhya dispute is possible is not living the reality we are living in.

Who is the retired bureaucrat, Mr Ramesh Chand Tripathi anyway to plead for postponement of the Allahabad High Court judgement to allow time for a negotiated solution when all the three parties to the dispute have unequivocally declared that it was too late to settle the issue out of court? The dispute started soon after the British left, with the growth of Hindu assertiveness vis-à-vis Muslims in the aftermath of Partition. Suits were filed on behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha, Sunni Central Waqf Board and other groups. The believers in a negotiated settlement need to be reminded that in the past several initiatives for a settlement through dialogue started, both at the instance of the court as well as concerned groups, and failed. Even during Mr L K Advani’s Somnath-Ayodhya rath yatra in early 1990, prime minister V P Singh set up a dialogue between religious leaders to defuse the tension. The wheels of this initiative were stuck in the mud like those of earlier initiatives. Mr Tripathi’s plea for giving negotiated settlement ‘one more chance’ does not make any sense against the history of collapse of a thousand chances. Judiciary is looked up as divine in India, and only a judicial decision can be acceptable even to the loser. Once the valid title to the disputed site is decided, there will be an opportunity for negotiated settlement for constructing a religious place of worship nearby for the losing side in the interest of communal amity. Mr Tripathi could use that opportunity to do something worthwhile after retirement.