BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday asked Congress leader and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal to apologise to PM Narendra Modi after a Supreme Court order listed him as an advocate for Sunni Waqf Board in Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir case, which he has being denying till now.
"Meanwhile, Sibal in more trouble. Thanks to Gaurav Bhatia of BJP, and SC lawyer, I find that SC Order of 5/12 lists Sibal as Advocate for Sunni Wakf Board. Apologise to Namo, Sibal!", the BJP MP tweeted.
Swamy's remarks came hours after Sibal claimed that he never represented the Sunni Waqf Board in the case and asked the prime minister to check facts before saying something in public. "I learnt that the prime minister and Amit Shah have said that I represented the Sunni Waqf Board in the Supreme Court, but I was never representing the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ayodhya issue. It would have been better had the prime minister been more careful and checked the facts before saying so in public. What I said in court on his divisive agenda, he has proved that right in a single day," the former Union minister said.
Lauding Sunni Waqf Board for disassociating itself from the stand taken by Sibal on Ayodhya dispute in Supreme Court, PM Modi on Wednesday had said that the board must be congratulated for its brave stand on the matter. "The Sunni Waqf Board must be congratulated for their brave stand on the matter and disassociating themselves from the statement of Kapil Sibal ji," PM Modi had said while addressing a public gathering in Gujarat.
Haji Mehboob from the Sunni Waqf Board, the petitioner in the case, had earlier said that the board has nothing to do with Sibal's statement even though he is representing them in the matter. "Yes Kapil Sibal is our lawyer but he is also related to a political party, his statement in SC was wrong, we want a solution to the issue at the earliest," Mehboob added.
On the first day of hearing in the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir dispute, Sibal had requested the top court to adjourn the hearing till July 2019. However, the apex court turned down his plea and fixed February 8, 2018 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
