What went wrong in the negotiations with the Shankaracharya?
Firstly, there was no negotiation. At no stage was there any negotiation across the table between the Shankaracharya and the Muslim Personal Law Board. What we had was just two letters, dated June 16 and July 1. The July 1 letter almost cancelled the proposal of June 16 and the entire approach was on one point — donate the land for the sake of national good, for the sake of the community and for peace and amity which had an element of threat. That you donate or else This was such backtracking and such a reversal that the Board felt flabbergasted. There were some people in the Board who were quite prepared to further discuss the June 16 proposal because he (the Shankaracharya) had made a similar proposal in March 2002. Although this year’s June 16 proposal was less than what he (the Shankaracharya) had offered last year, some people still felt that maybe through some negotiations we might be able to get something more solid and concrete. But when they saw the July 1 letter, there was a
