KANCHIPURAM, India, July 7: Hindu and Muslim leaders do not appear to make any progress towards resolving the Ayodhya dispute as negotiators from both sides refused to budge from their positions.

India’s Hindu pontiff Kanchi Shankracharya Jayendra Saraswati on Monday he would make no further efforts to discuss with Muslim leaders a bitter dispute over a holy site in Ayodhya after they rejected his proposals.

“There will be no more effort from our side. If they (the Muslims) come to us, we will talk to them,” Kanchi Saraswati said.

Kanchi Saraswati said he had set aside the convention and his own prestige by going to the Muslim Board for talks, so that the Hindu and Muslim communities could live in peace.

The Hindu pontiff last month mooted a set of proposals to the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board to solve the Ayodhya crisis.

The crux of these suggestions was a request to the Muslim community to allow the construction of a Hindu temple in areas adjoining the disputed patch of land where the ancient Babri mosque stood before it was demolished by Hindus in 1992.

Simultaneous to the construction on the undisputed land, the seer said, talks could continue on the disputed site. The proposals did not talk about reconstructing the mosque.

In subsequent correspondence between Saraswati and the board, the seer hardened his stand and asked the Muslims to donate the Ayodhya land for temple construction.

On Sunday, the AIMPLB outrightly rejected the proposals terming them “not reasonable (and) totally inconsistent with honour, dignity and self-respect of Indian Muslims.”

The board, however, said it was keeping its doors open for further negotiations and there were indications on Monday that it might send a team to the seer’s headquarters in southern India.

Referring to the board’s rejection of the proposal to donate the disputed site to Hindus, the seer said there were precedents in which Muslims had handed over land to Hindus.

“Islam does not prohibit donating Wakf (Muslim holy land). Only trading in property is a taboo. We know several instances of the Wakf Board donating land to educational institutions and even Hindu hermitages. There is nothing wrong with that,” the pontiff told a crowded news conference.

Meanwhile in New Delhi, the ruling BJP party, close to the temple campaign, said it was still “hopeful” that dialogue would continue.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad said it was meeting in New Delhi on July 11 to discuss future strategy.

“The doors of negotiations are always open but we will have to see what use comes out of such talks,” VHP spokesman Veereshwa Dwivedi told reporters.—AFP