By Feroze Mithiborwala,
The Ayodhya Verdict was a judicial demolition and justification of the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The verdict stands in utter contempt of the Indian constitution, as was the demolition. The verdict is an affront to the very vision of an India that is rooted in its secular and plural values.
The judgment has set an unprecedented precedent by giving precedence to belief or aastha over law. A civil title suit was reduced to a theological verdict.
This is the process whereby the Brahmanic Manusmriti increasingly gains precedence over the Ambedkarite Constitution.
The verdict, far from ensuring a respectful closure, has opened up a Pandoras box, whereby every place of religious worship will be under threat from the RSS and its myriad militant affiliates, who have proved their prowess at conducting pogroms and destruction of mosques in Gujarat.
Thus this verdict has actually created new grave problems, instead of solving the old.
Clearly the verdict is less of a legal pronouncement and more of a political settlement sought by the Congress, RSS and the BJP. This has in turn only compounded the imbroglio.
What is also missing from the entire discourse is the fact that the mobilization and demolition of the Babri Masjid on the 6th of December, was the Brahmanical counter to the Punyatithi or death anniversary celebration of Dr. Ambedkar, wherein lakhs of Dalits, OBC’s and other oppressed masses go to the Chaitya Bhoomi to pay their respects.
This was the revenge of the RSS, as Dr. Ambedkar had converted to Buddhism with lakhs of his followers on the last day of Dussehra in 1956.
Also the fact is that Advani’s Rath Yatra was a counter to the announcement of the Mandal commission by VP Singh. Thus the focal point of the entire Ram Mandir movement has been to target the Muslim community and the co-option of the Dalit, OBC masses into the Brahmanic fold.
Thus at the core lies the ideological struggle between the emancipatory, egalitarian and humanitarian principles as enunciated by Mahata Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Brahmanism on the other.
Thus the design is to build a grand or Bhavya Ram Temple as a counter to the Chaitya Bhoomi.
It is also a religio-cultural counter-revolution against the fast spreading Buddhism across all of North India, especially amongst certain sections of the empowered Dalits.
The most dangerous and offensive part of this judgment is the fact that it has justified the ravings and rantings of L. K. Advani, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Kalyan Singh and their entire ilk.
For the judgment to mention that Bhagwan Ram was born under the central dome of the Babri Masjid, is an incredible leap of aastha. Even the findings of the ASI report that could not be determined even by the best of historians and archeologists, was used as conclusive evidence.
Most incredible of this all is that one of the parties to the dispute is Ram Lalla Virajman himself. This is again unprecedented. A deity is a participant in a legal dispute, who is then granted a judicial status with a birth certificate.
Do we need the courts to go into this terrain of beliefs, where tomorrow the very status of God or Eshwar or Allah or Ahura Mazda will be decided?? Ridiculous and preposterous!!
Even though the Court agrees that the idols were placed there in 1949, itstill does not find it a criminal act, even though an FIR had been lodged.
So the entire criminal act, leading to the very demolition is then justified and the precedent thus set, that can be replicated with little cause for worry for the RSS and it’s fanatic hordes.
Though the Congress is shouting from the rooftops, that the Civil suite will have no bearings on the criminal case, the glaring delays over the Liberhan Commission (extended 49 times!!) report is proof of the collusion between the Congress and the RSS-BJP.
LK Advani has taken all precautions to differentiate between the leadership that stood at the frontline directing the crazed mobs and those of the thousands who were indulging in the violence and destruction.
Actually the matter could have been resolved in a different and far more sensible manner that would have given a respectful closure to all of Indian society.
All that the judges required to say was the following. That none of the disputants to the title suit can prove their possession. Since all the parties have been present, sharing and praying at the said site since 1855, the property has to be shared equitably.
That was all that was required, but instead the judgment has opened vistas in which the possibilities for stirring the communal cauldron are immense.
We are amongst the world’s most ancient civilizations and if we start digging up, every little plot of land will throw up a religious dispute.
And even though there is no evidence that a Temple was destroyed to build a mosque, yet judge Sharma behaved like he was writing a pamphlet for the RSS.
The very Ramcharitramanas of Tulsidas never mentioned even the possibility of this dispute, even though he was around 30 years old when the Babri mosque was built in 1528 and was functioning till 1949.
The Nirmohi Akhada were staking their claim to the property, but never raised the issue of Bhagwan Ram’s birthplace.
The ASI report also mentions Buddhist and Jain remains, but very little public debate on this aspect, as clearly Ayodhya was and is an important centre for these two religions as well.
Thus a number of legal luminaries have been astonished at the judgment & have debunked it as a mere panchayati faisla.
This judgment actually proves that the judges had no aastha or faith in the Indian constitution and thus the Brahmanical sham.