New Delhi: Has the acquittal of all those accused in the Babri mosque demolition case “drawn curtains” on an issue “that agitated the Hindu psyche for 472 years”, as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) claims?
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, expressed similar sentiments on the issue. General Secretary Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi said that following this judgment, all sections of society should come together to confront the challenges India faces, and take the country on the path of development.
A special CBI court Wednesday said that the voluminous evidence produced in court did not prove that the demolition was planned in advance but happened on the spur of the moment. The court acquitted all 32 of those accused and facing trial, including former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, former Uttar Pradesh CM Kalyan Singh, and their fellow BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Sakshi Maharaj.
Top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party President J.P. Nadda maintained their silence on the verdict. There was no official word from the BJP either, though some senior party leaders welcomed the judgment.
“The party will speak if and when it feels the need to,” a senior BJP functionary told ThePrint.
Also read: No BJP workers outside Advani & Joshi homes, Babri verdict gets a quiet celebration
A ‘discreet’ reaction & an image makeover
Party leaders proffered two explanations for this ‘discreet’ reaction. First, the party and the government did not want to say or do anything that would ‘provoke’ a section of people who might be feeling aggrieved by the special CBI court ruling. The explanation is plausible as the ruling dispensation had adopted a similar strategy in November 2019 after the Supreme Court settled the Ayodhya title suit in favour of the Hindus for the construction of a Ram temple.
The second explanation proffered was that it was time to “bury the past” and move ahead, something suggested by the VHP and the RSS. Is the party attempting an image makeover, now that it has been given a judicial clean chit through the acquittal of its leaders by a special court?
The BJP’s alleged role in the demolition had given its political adversaries an opportunity to paint it as a “communal” party. The pictures of kar sevaks demolishing the mosque in the presence of senior BJP leaders painted a defining image that haunted the party, especially during its outreach to the liberal intelligentsia and the middle classes.
The acquittal of L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and other BJP leaders has given it an opportunity to recast its image — from one that was identified with destruction to one that is engaged in the task of reconstruction (of the Ram temple in Ayodhya that the Sangh Parivar sees as a part of the nation-building process).
The demolition case was a politically motivated “conspiracy” by the Congress government to malign the image of BJP leaders and saints, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said. This is likely to be the common refrain of the top BJP leadership in the coming days and weeks ahead of the Bihar assembly polls and later.
Just as they took credit for the Supreme Court ruling for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, they are likely to use the special court’s judgment in the Babri demolition case to ‘reconstruct’ the BJP’s image.
Also read: Unseen photos of how Babri Masjid demolition was planned and executed in 1992
Secular test & building ‘religious character’
The party’s first test is, however, likely to be the handling of a growing clamour by Hindu saints and seers for the “liberation” of Mathura and Kashi, by removing two mosques. The Gyanvapi mosque shares its boundary with the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, while the Shahi Idgah is located adjacent to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura. While the Ram temple issue had been part of the BJP’s manifesto since 1989, the party has not made any pledge on the Mathura and Kashi issue.
After the Supreme Court verdict, the RSS had suggested that it was preparing to move beyond mandir-masjid dispute, saying that it does not get involved in any movement. ‘We work towards character building’ is their motto. In the past, the circumstances were different, resulting in the Sangh getting involved in the (Ayodhya) movement. “We will once again work for character building,” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said then.
The Sangh apparently is re-thinking that stance now. Top RSS functionaries state that they will go by “what the samaj (society) thinks” about Mathura and Kashi issue. The RSS is likely to support the demand by the saints at an appropriate time, say Sangh sources. And although BJP leaders aren’t inclined to take a stance just yet, their response is anybody’s guess, if and when the RSS supports it. Much will also depend on the state of the economy and the pandemic over the next three years.
The Sangh is also learnt to be ‘studying’ the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits conversion of the ‘religious character’ of any place of worship as it existed on 15 August 1947. The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structure was, however, excluded from the purview of this law. The RSS is said to be in favour of amending it, but hasn’t raised it with the government yet.
Also read: Why Supreme Court awarded disputed Ayodhya land to Hindus
Ayodhya issue itself has taken a toll of communal harmony thereby pushing the country back to decades, if not century, on economic development. The proposed new temple-mosque issues would take the country to stone ages.
The mosques in Banaras or Mathura do not share a wall or adjacent to temples. They were built after de demolishing existing temples.
Quite right. Babri Mosque site was just one of the forty thousand temples destroyed between 12th and 19th century. Of course, the Hindus are not trying to recover all these sites. It would be in the best interest of the society if the Muslims voluntarily and generously return the land occupied by Gyan Vapi mosque in Varanasi and the huge mosque standing on the site of Krishna Janmasthan.
Kudos for such a beautiful plan for making a beautiful Hindu sacred pradesh ( Hindu Pakistan) eliminating all mlechhas from our Aryavarta and then performing An Ashvamedh to conquer the world. Only then it will be a real Hindustan. Jai Hind.