Observing that India cannot be kept on boil by selectively dragging the past history, the Supreme Court on Monday junked a petition seeking to restore original names of historical, cultural and religious places traceable in Ramaya, Mahabharat, Puranas and religious scriptures.

Coming down heavily on a BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a bench of Justice K M Joseph and Justice B V Nagarathna said that the country having more pressing issues to deal with cannot be kept a “prisoner of past” and recalled the “divide and rule’ policy of the Britishers.

“We don’t want the present and the succeeding generations to become prisoners of [past”, the bench said as Justice Joseph while pointing to the greatness of Hindu religion, referred to a treaty ‘The Hindu Way of Life’ by  India’s second President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan .

Stating that the PIL petitioner advocate was  “pointing fingers at a particular community”  and terming them as “barbaric”,  both Justice Joseph and Justice Nagarathna said that Hinduism was a way of life  which has assimilated that came its way and there was no place for bigotry in it.

“You want to keep this as a live issue and keep the country on a boil. Fingers are pointed at a particular community and are termed as barbaric.  You run down a particular section of society. India is a secular State and it (Supreme court)  is a secular  form” and are seeking direction to the secular Union Home Ministry – that protects all sections of people – to set-up a ‘renaming commission’, said Justice Joseph.

Pointing to the greatness of Hindu kings in Kerala, Justice Joseph said that they were, centuries ago, who gave lands for the construction of churches.

As BJP leader and advocate PIL petitioner  told the court that there were roads  and cities named after  Muslim invaders  but there was none  after the five Pandyas, Justice Nagarathna  referring to the ‘divide and rule’ policy of Britishers asked him “can you wish away the facts of history.  Can you wish away invasion from history? Don’t we have other problems in this country? To move forward”.