THE DEMOLITION AND THE VERDICT AYODHYA AND THE PROJECT TO RECONFIGURE INDIA by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

Author:Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay [Mukhopadhyay, Nilanjan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-15T11:00:00+00:00

Ram Navami is an important Hindu festival and is considered as the day of Ram’s arrival or birth. Traditionally, tens of thousands of devotees congregate in Ayodhya for a dip in the Sarayu and pay obeisance at temples. It was obvious that the newly ‘restored temple’ and the idol inside would be the chief attraction in 1986. VHP leaders called for a Ram Janmabhoomi Mahotsav on this day in the town. Several Muslim leaders called for a parallel event in Faizabad. The district administration, under instructions from the state and Centre, attempted to seal entry points to the city but still an estimated 10,000 Muslims sneaked in and held a public rally. The unlocking of the Babri Masjid had become a major threat to peace and intercommunity relationship, and the RSS–VHP was benefitting from communal polarization.

Yet the government of the day believed it could successfully ride the rival waves simultaneously. The plan that Advani claimed was already brewing in the prime minister’s mind in January 1986, when the latter paid him a visit to condole his father’s passing, had taken concrete shape. After consultations with the AIMPLB, Rajiv had made up his mind to address popular Muslim sentiment on the matter. He concluded that it was necessary to work with the AIMPLB if he intended to regain support among Muslim masses. He met Tahir Mehmood, acknowledged scholar of Muslim personal law who later became chairperson of the National Minority Commission, and Salman Khurshid, then known mainly as a Cambridge-educated Supreme Court lawyer and son of Khurshid Alam Khan, a senior Congress leader and Union minister.

Rajiv’s decision to get his law minister to move the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill in Parliament on 25 February 1986 provoked adverse reaction from most quarters although for different reasons. Secularists, led by eminent jurist and former Supreme Court judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer, wrote to the prime minister within seventy-two hours, dubbing the legislation sinful and having dangerous consequences for the nation. On the other hand, proponents of the religio-cultural perspective termed the law as another proof of Congress appeasement of Muslim conservatives. Girilal Jain, editor of The Times of India, often considered the first articulate English-speaking (and writing in that language) Hindu nationalist with mass readership, wrote in a signed editorial dated 28 February that the bill was ‘a wholly retrograde piece of legislation and that its introduction in the Lok Sabha represents a violation of the assurance the Prime Minister had given’. Further, he argued that it was ‘shocking beyond words that the Prime Minister, who had made “march into the 21st century” his battle-cry, should have endorsed a march into the seventh century for one-eighth of the Indian people’.49

Arif Mohammed Khan’s resignation the day the bill was tabled was just the shot in the arm the VHP needed to mobilize support. Having achieved the objective of ‘liberating’ Ram Janmabhoomi, the next target was set: building a magnificent temple in place of the existing structure. The Centre did not impose

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