By TCN News,
New Delhi: The non-secular, nay, anti-secular idiom of the Ayodhya judgments is deeply disturbing, said a group of concerned citizens, academics, writers, lawyers, social workers and activists after a meeting here on October 15 to discuss the issues arising out of the judgment.
The concerned citizens were unanimous in their dismay over the judgement of the three judges of the Special Full Bench of the Allahabad High Court, who recently passed their final verdict in the 60 year old title suits over the bitterly contested property in Ayodhya. They were distressed
with the grave implications of this judgement for Indian public life, and the principles of justice, secularism, democracy and rationality.
“The judgments of Justice DV Sharma and Justice Sudhir Aggarwal are based on language and arguments which effectively and dramatically invert the principle of a secular state, which subordinates faith to law, by making the law subordinate to faith. The non-secular, nay, anti-secular idiom of the judgments of the two Judges is deeply disturbing,” they said in a joint statement.
“The verdict constitutes a dangerous precedent, which can be used against other vulnerable groups in future, like dalits, tribals and women. For almost 500 years, Muslims had worshipped routinely in the Babri Mosque, while Hindus worshipped at the Ram Chabootra in the open area adjacent to the mosque, in a spirit of mutual communal goodwill. The disputed claim of Hindus to the land on which the mosque stood is based on naked aggression from 1949 to 1992. With this judgement, the movement which challenged India’s secular Constitution and took hundreds of lives, and fostered fear and hate was rewarded.”
They denied that Ayodhya issue is a clash between Hindus and Muslims. “There is indeed no such clash, and there never has been. It has always been a dispute between two alternate visions of India; between Hindutva and secularism; between a minority of persons unreconciled to the secular democratic idea of India, and the majority of Indians of every faith who believe in and live this idea,” read the statement signed by Aban Raza, Amit Sengupta, Anuradha Marwah, AAEA, Apoorvanand, Departemnt of Hindi, Delhi University, Asad Zaidi, Bibin Kuakose, J.N.U., Dominique Emmanuel, Dr. Suresh Khairnar, All India Secular Forum, Farah Naqvi, Independent Writer and Activist, Gauhar Raza, Navaid Hamid, Neelabh Mishra, Shabnam Hashmi and others.