“I’ll tell you. I was there. A man on fire gets up, falls, runs for his life, falls, gets up, runs.”
- Maximum City by Suketu Mehta
INDIA IS MY COUNTRY; ALL INDIANS ARE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. I used to blindly recite this line in my school; the pledge every Indian takes. Although, I do go and kill a few of my brothers; Rape and brutally murder the very same sisters because perhaps I don’t like the architecture of the mosques they go to, or the smell of the incense sticks they light in the temples. I am just any ordinary Indian, who witnessed a national crisis, an inter-religious battle
and a mayhem at the small town of Ayodhya.
To start with, let me just phrase it this way. Some Mughal ruler, a few hundred years ago, is claimed to have created a mosque by destroying a sacred Ram Mandir, and after many centuries, many Hindus went up there (round about 1,50,000 kar sevaks, as they were known) and destroyed the mosque, ‘avenging’ their loss, which they didn’t even suffer themselves. Many ‘brothers and sisters’ got slaughtered and raped and many ministers filled their vote banks, and ultimately their pockets. (Is the Swiss Bank holding some sort of a competition for its account holders?)
The 30th of September of the year 2010 saw curfews and ‘bandhs’ in almost all parts of the country, fearing more interfamily riots between my brothers and sisters. The Allahabad High Court gave its verdict on this date. A very courageous move, as it previously lay hanging by a thin, weak thread of communal riots for scores of years. But, call it fortunate or unfortunate for India, the decision was not about punishing the culprits, the who’s who of this genocide, but about the division of that controversial piece of land between the different groups which were fighting for it.
The Rath Yatra, an excuse of an event, was organised by the then BJP chief, L.K. Advani, in Sept 1990. Thousands of kar sevaks had amassed at Ayodhya for the yatra on the 6th of Dec, which is believed to be a pre-planned conspiracy. It was the only way for him to collect such a huge crowd of Hindus in front of the Babri Mosque. Quite expectedly, the Babri Mosque was demolished the same day, by those kar sevaks. The whole country observed massive riots in every part. The question is, was it really worth the losses that we, as a nation underwent for a piece of architecture which, maybe, belonged to the Hindus many centuries back? Is it worth losing 1500 lives and property worth crores of rupees? Is it worth the 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blasts which a few Muslim terrorists did in response to the Babri Masjid demolition? Ayodhya is many hundreds of miles to the north of Bombay, but the rubble from its torn mosque swiftly provided the foundations for the walls that shot up between Hindus and Muslims in Bombay. The divided metropolis went to war with itself; a series of riots left at least 1400 people dead. Those blasts really had rocked the financial capital of India.
A very important question rises in people’s minds, if this topic is pondered upon; why, after the construction of the Babri Mosque in 1527 on the claimed Ram Janmabhoomi, are people trying to fight for that piece of land? Why is it that it took about 460 long years for the people to register a simple fact in their minds, that it’s a mosque there, and it has been there for centuries! Why was it left untouched in the 1947 partition riots? Why did the mosque shine its glory even after the India-Pakistan war? Why suddenly, after almost four and a half centuries, do the Hindu sentiments rise for their sacred Ram Janmabhoomi? Some Hindus and Muslims had hostility for each other in the 16th century, and we suddenly resume that legacy after four and a half, vast centuries?
Is it the sudden rise of religious sentiments? Or is it the gullible junta (the masses), which get manipulated by a few string pulling politicians?
‘“Let the temple come up.” This was the remark by Atal Behari Vajpayee when I asked for his reaction to the destruction of the Babri Masjid one day after the incident’, says Kuldeep Nayar, an eminent Indian columnist. A Television showed a video clip of Vajpayee’s speech, given one day before the demolition, on the 5th of December at Lucknow, with him saying that the ground would be levelled, and a yagna (religious celebration) would be held at that place.
The real politicisation of the issue began when L K Advani decided to stage a Rath Yatra to gather support for the construction of the temple. The Rath Yatra wasn’t a cause, but an excuse for demolition. It was the only way that BJP could have justified the presence of such a huge crowd near the Babri Mosque complex. It was a peaceful beginning headed towards a violent end and specially manoeuvred by the top brass of RSS, VHP and BJP. L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, the other two BJP leaders, were co-conspirators, and this was general knowledge on December 6, 1992 itself.
The indictment has exposed our polity because all the three ministers came to occupy top positions in the country with Vajpyee as the Prime Minister, Advani as our Home Minister and Murli Manohar Joshi heading the HRD Ministry. That further implies that they were dishonest in taking the oath before taking up the office, which demanded that the office bearer worked for the country’s unity and secularism. The Liberhan Commission has said that they were among the 68 who were "culpable" in taking the country to the brink of "communal discord."
The then Prime Minister, PV Narsimha Rao, could’ve acted before the demolition took place. The proclamation to impose President’s rule was ready a fortnight earlier. The cabinet’s approval was awaited, but no meetings were convened. When the demolition began, there were frantic calls to the Prime Minister, P.V. Narsimha Rao’s office. He was said to be at Puja (prayer) and continued to be at it till the demolition was over. What should one make out of this?
Justice Liberhan, head of the Liberhan Commission for the Babri demolition conspiracy theory, somehow doesn’t mention anything about the span of 17 years between his appointment and the submission of his findings, in his 900 page report. It is a little difficult to digest that the report took 17 years for submission. A sum of Rupees 8 crores had been spent on this commission.
We’ve fallen in a vicious circle today where Hindus and Muslims are retaliating violently. To hit back for these terror attacks, Hindus have also formed many radical groups in the nation. Take the Malegaon blast, or the Samjhauta Express blast by the Abhinav Bharat group, led by Swami Aseemananda and Pragya Thakur, both of who are in custody today. This radicalism is giving tremors to our peace in some or the other part of our country.
India has had many communal riots but there was something different with the Babri Masjid demolition. Unlike partition riots, Godhra riots or anti-sikh riots, which were spontaneous outbursts of religious ideologies and personal hatred, the Babri Mosque demoliton was pre-planned and thoroughly executed by a complete circle of politicians and bureaucrats
While the educated and intellectual lot admits that they don’t care who gets the complex, now also there is huge portion of population to whom this issue matters. The government should abstain from interfering in the working of the court as well make sure the area is neutral. Further politicization of this issue can stretch our democracy to its limits with disastrous consequences.
Musalaman aur Hindu hain do, ek magar unka pyala
Ek magar unka madiralaya, ek magar unki haala
Dono rehte sath na jab tak, mandir masjid mein jaate
Bair badhate mandir masjid, male karati madhushala
- Sri Harivanshrai Bachchan (a quote from Madhushala)
