The countdown to the judgement in the nation’s 134 years old suit of Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad, UP has begun and is certain to find its conclusion on or before November 15 as it would be the last working day before Chief Justice of India Rajan Gogoi is set to retire on November 17. The Constitution bench consists of Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice SA Nazeer apart from CJI, has been hearing the case, which was challenged in SC, after Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had ordered on September 30, 2010, that Babri Masjid site be divided into three parts, two of it going to Hindu side and one to the Muslim side, since August 5, and has finally been completed after 40 days.
The Hindu side, with acquiescent BJP governments at Center and UP, is already in celebration mode, as discussions from numerous representatives of Hindu organisations, like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Akhara Parishads, Hindu Sena, ABVP, Hindu Mahasabha, Hindu Samaj etc , is along the lines as to how the Babri Masjid site and its adjoining area of 67.7, acquired by the Center in 1993, would be distributed between the warring Hindu claimants like Nirmohi Akhara, Ram Janambhumi Nyas and Bhagwan Shri Ram Lala Virajman etc. This is a daily spectacle on probably every news channel where more than eager news anchors are all ganged-up to pronounce the judgement in favour of Hindu side, even before the judgement day. There is allurement, threat, force-acquiescence and an onslaught from all the ten-directions on Muslims on Muslim side to anyhow surrender to the making of Ram Temple on the demolished site of Babri Masjid, despite no proven evidence of historical value that Malikul Mulk Zaheer-ud-Din Babar demolished the Ram Temple or any other temple to erect Babri Masjid on it in 1528. Babri Masjid was demolished by BJP top leadership along with lacs of Hindu fanatics on Dec 6, 1992. Hindus have already started to launch the movement for the claim of Kashi and Mathura disputed sites. All India Akhara Parishad, on October 17, has announced that it is very hopeful that judgement would favour the Hindu side and which would kick-start the movement for the two disputed sites, and later around for the 40,000 mosques to be claimed by Hindus, as well. There is not even a remote reference to the remorse of ‘death and destruction’ Babri Masjid demolition had brought to Muslims and its demolition accused are far from being brought to book. The trial of demolition cases as Crime No: 197/92 and 198/92 are however also underway at the Special Court (Ayodhya Prakaran) in Lucknow, as just a token semblance of law!
Precisely and not from that too distant history, it may be known that 90% of the land of Ayodhya, Faizabad, belonged to Muslims until 1947, but after the making of Pakistan, there was an exodus of land-owning Muslims from Faizabad and UP, and with Congress CM Govind Ballabh Pant, a rabid Muslim baiter at the helm, idols of Lord Rama were surreptitiously and stealthily kept inside Babri Masjid on Dec 22/23, 1949, Babri Masjid was locked and permission was given to Hindus to start worship as Receiver by Court was installed. Muslims could not offer prayers thereafter. Once Maulana Muzaffar Husain Kichchochvi, in 1954, gave a call to Muslims to offer prayers but were stopped by police. However, some Muslims scaled the wall of Babri Masjid and offered prayers. Hashim Ansari was one of them and police had broken his one leg while he offered his prayers and was jailed for six months. Hashim Ansari was one of the litigants of the Babri Masjid case. He passed on July 20, 2016, and is substituted by his son Iqbal Ansari.
The scales were thus titled against Muslims ever since Muslim majority Punjab and Bengal were partitioned in 1947. India was not partitioned but in fact Muslims were partitioned into three parts and Hindus were allowed to make a collective conglomerate with their civilisational continuity intact. The odds since 1947 are quite understandably heavily against Muslims. There is no level playing field. Hindus at their merriment throw barbs at Muslims who are left just to scurry for defense through Constitutional guarantees, but despite all, the specter of ‘communal riots as Muslim’s destiny’ is the only hallmark of the last seven decades. Hundreds of Muslims died in riots under India India’s first Congress PM JL Nehru, and thousands of Muslims perished under Congress PM Indira Gandhi rule. This streak continued with hundreds of Muslims dying to UP police bullets in Moradabad 1980 and she was the PM when nearly 3000 Muslims were brutally massacred in Nielle, Assam in a week in 1983, in fact 1800 were killed in just six hours! Hashimpura (1987) killing of Muslims can easily put Nazis to shame, Maliyana (1987), Meerut(1987), Bhagalpur(1989)-riots happened in the immediate aftermath of opening of Babri Masjid locks on Fen 1, 1986 by Congress PM Rajiv Gandhi. Ahmedabad (1969), Bhiwandi (1970&1984), Rourkela(1964), Jamshedpur(1979), Bombay and Surat (1993) apart from thousands of smaller riots with the same denunciation : Muslims killed, Muslim’s property burnt and gutted and thereafter Muslims named as rioters and fending themselves in Courts for decades. The ultimate state sponsored Muslim holocaust happened under CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi in 2002 and which also has its roots in Ayodhya. Ever since 1993 Muslims have been reeling under the draconian laws like TADA/POTA/UAPA with our security and law enforcing agencies more than ready to bludgeon Muslims into the dungeons. There are countless stories of Muslims ‘coming out of jails’ after twenty years as ‘innocent’.
No wonder, this perpetual and institutional persecution of Muslims, with the world not even having an iota of an idea of atrocities of such propensity, Muslims have been fending against anti-Muslim forces, first in the form of Congress and now BJP and its ilk. Today, the stage has come when every Muslim is under threat from being killed or manhandled on the streets, with Hindus splurging their ‘persecution complex’ on hapless Muslims at large. This situation has been not so easily steeped but for the patent policies of Congress governments that Muslims be weaned out from any government job and their dwindling numbers now are bordering total exclusion. Not a single Masjid, Dargah, Khanqah, Imambara is today safe and real-estate (read Hindus) merchants are leering at these properties, which are the largest in the country after railways. Muslims apart from this are accused of extra-territorial, read Pakistan, loyalties, as today Muslim MP Asad-ud-din Owaisi is openly accused on stage in a debate, of being ‘Desh Bhakt’ but Rashta-Virodhi by BJP MP Subramanyam Swami! Hundreds of Hindu organisations and millions of Hindu individuals are exhorting Hindus to buy weapons, thousands of ‘training of use of weapons programs’ are conducted by RSS and its affiliates, and this is going on unabated from at least the last three decades all openly, the only exception to it being the presence of social-media which is bringing everything into the glare.
India is into the same xenophobia it was in 1947 or prior to it. After the abrogation of Article 370 BJP ministers are lecherously salivating for Kashmiri women apart from land in Kashmir. UP Yogi Adityanath has had a history of anti-Muslim speeches where he can be found saying that for every Hindu killed, no FIR would get lodged and instead ten-Muslims be killed, he has presided in programs where Hindus are extolled to uproot Muslim women from graves and rape them , available as Saffron War documentary (on Youtube) since 2011, a justification inherited from Savarkar who wanted to use rape as a political tool. Kathua, in Jammu, where little Asiya was raped, and hundreds had taken out a rally to support the rapists, is the latest example. Savarkar is now being groomed for the highest Indian civilian award the Bharat Ratna by BJP. There is also a parallel campaign from BJP to foster Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel and Shyma Prasad Mukherjee against JL Nehru, Savarkar and Godse against Gandhi. Is India to find Savarkar’s picture on our currency note instead of Gandhi? And Godse too accorded with Bharat Ratna is only time would entail.
No wonder, such circumstances having emanated since 1947, Muslim have been huddled under the barrage of Hindu aggression with no one to rescue and quite understandably, no sooner the Babri Masjid imbroglio started, since the installation of Rama Idols, and Gopal Singh Visharad staking claim to start worship at idols, on Jan 16, 1950, as many as 22 Muslims, had filed their affidavits in City Magistrate Court, Faizabad, Under/Section 145 of CrPC, in which it was stated that Babri Masjid be given to the Hindus. Even those Muslims who had offered their prayers at Babri Masjid were amongst the signatories as it was propagated that in order to avoid the dispute surrender was the only way out. But, the said affidavits were being ill-drafted, not properly verified and with had no identification of persons involved, were not found to be binding, in the judgement of the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Sep 30, 2010.
No sooner than 1984 when Ram Temple liberation Rath Yatra was started by Congress leaders like Dau Dayal Khanna and Nirmal Das Khstri, from Sitamarhi in Bihar, posters of Lord Rama in chains were put across the country, and communal frenzy had started to fill the air, and nearly everyone had started to suggest that Babri Masjid may be shifted ‘as a whole’ by machines brought from Darshan Nagar, Faizabad. The second round of Rath Yatra for such liberation was undertaken by LK Advani in 1990 which had left a trail of blood soaked riots across the nation, had made Kanpur Muslims, convene a meeting of All India Muslim Personal Law Board in Delhi, to resolve the issue. MA Siddiqui, who is one of the pillars of the movement of Babri Masjid was present as a ‘special-invitee’ and Maulana Sajjad Nomani was also present along with Maulana Abdul Kareem Parikh etc. There were rumblings, inside AIMPLB, that Muslims leave their claim over Babri Masjid until Sajjad Nomani gave an opinion ‘ Halaat ke jabr se Musalman Babri Masjid ka difa na kar sakein to shayad Allah unhein Muaaf kar de lekin Masjid ke baare mein koi muhaida nahi kiya ja sakta ( Allah may forgive Muslims for not defending Babri Masjid under atrocious circumstances but a compromise on a mosque cannot be forged). This finally led to AIMPLB pass a resolution and the campaign from inside Muslims to forsake Babri Masjid was given the burial. But, sprouts like Maulana Waheed-ud-Din Khan and later Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, followed by Salman Nadvi (both from inside AIMPLB ) have reared their heads to surrender Babri Masjid, much to the ignominy of Muslim community and quite conclusively this bandwagon has been joined by Shia and Sunni Central Waqf Board Chairmen Waseem Rizvi and Zafar Farooqui that Babri Masjid may be given and let Rama Temple be built on it. As if Babri Masjid is for sale to whip up for any personal gain!
The exercise to give up Babri Masjid hasn’t been new. It was Congress Union Home Minister Buta Singh who had roped into Prince Anjum Qadr, president of All India Shia Conference, Babri Masjid last mutawalli (trustee) Jawad Husain and Shia Waqf Board in 1989 in High Court, Lucknow, to submit into giving-up the claim on Babri Masjid but the plan could not get through, later when NDA was in power (1999-2004) Asghar Abbas and Captain Sikander Rizvi joined the babble , after Sep 30, 2010 Shamil Shamsi, cousin of Kalbe Jawad, offered to give 15 lacs for Ram Temple construction, Buqqal Nawab even before he had joined BJP had offered 10 lacs golden crown for Lord Rama. The mongering (sic) for Ram Temple construction from within Muslim community today know ‘no holds barred’ as the Muslim usurpers to the cause of Babri Masjid are roaring even more fierce than Hindu fanatics!
Zafar Farooqui, as the last salvo, on the 40th day of hearing in SC (Oct 17), has submitted to the three member mediation-panel, started on March 8, on the orders of SC, a ‘no-objection’ that Babri Masjid site may be acquired by the government, hence, a surrender, in exchange of certain conditions all made public, in gross violation of SC order, which had said for utmost-confidentiality. We cannot question the wisdom of SC but Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a member of mediation-panel had already tainted himself for his open bias for temple, about which I had earlier written (http://www.milligazette.com/news/16679-the-babri-mediation-how-suitable-is-sri-sri) but this exercise was deliberated by SC as a last ditch effort to stitch up a compromise. All the Muslim parties contesting the case in SC have opposed Farooqui’s stand. Interestingly, only three days, on Oct 14, AMU Ex VC Zameer-ud-din Shah, Retired IAS Anis Ansari, Padam Shri Mansoor Hasan, Nisar Ahmed former IPS etc had gathered in Lucknow, at Hyatt Regency hotel, as ‘Indian Muslims for Peace’, to give Babri Masjid site to Hindus as a goodwill gesture. They were opposed by Muslim Majlis whose members stood outside the venue and said this sale of Babri Masjid is not to be allowed as only SC judgement is acceptable to Muslims. Muslim Majlis was the first saner political voice of Muslims in India, after 1947, founded by Abdul Jaleel Faridi, which won many assembly seats in UP but it could not go beyond 1984 when its last MLA Fazlul Bari was elected. Bari had been a part of the Babri Masjid Action Committee on Feb 6, 1986, after Babri Masjid locks were opened up five days earlier by Rajiv Gandhi. It may be reiterated here that those who are today all-out to sell Babri Masjid, never in their life time, had ever come to contribute a single rupee to the cause of Babri Masjid.
The topic of Hindu communalism and systematic cleansing of Muslims warrant a book but suffice it to say that Congress is solely responsible for Muslim annihilation. Its first education minister Abul Kalam Azad, saw Rama Idols be placed in Babri Masjid, and later his historic speech at Lucknow Baradari, asking Muslims to shun ‘Muslim Politics’ as Congress was there to address to aspirations of every Indian, led to Muslims, providing themselves as fodder to Congress policies, which in due course became ‘spurious liquor’ for Hindus, who were already traditionally goaded by Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and Jana Sangh etc , which led to BJP avatar and nearly 90 percent of Congress activists, leaders and voters have taken to BJP, with the irony of Congress becoming the spokesperson for secularism in the country! If nation is to be saved then Congress should melt itself into BJP and let secular forces articulate their voices without Congress crutches.
Indeed, it is under these circumstances, when probably everything in India is saffronised, the SC is to take up the cudgels as nation is looking for justice towards its oldest issue. Muslims have always maintained that they would adhere to SC judgment and Hindus have time and again threatened even SC to deliver the judgement in favour of majority sentiments, which is now in for its most effervescent test as rule of law and democracy, which are complementary to each other, is under its existential threat. Last but not the least only a naïve would believe that Hindus would stick for only Ram Temple at Ayodhya, but in fact apart from Kashi and Mathura sites, Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Lal Qila, Bada Imambara, Gol Gumbaz and Charminar etc are all to be invaded sooner or later. Very soon Uniform Civil Code is to be put through parliament as that would stop conversion, Kashmir already under sleeve and Ram Temple waiting to happen, is all what is needed for India to be finally declared as Hindu Rajya (State) , for it was always a Hindu Rashtra (Nation).
SC is the last recoup for justice.
The writer is a lawyer, journalist and former UP State Information Commissioner.
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