Stop This Mandir-Masjid Survey Race, Bhagwat, Modi Must Walk-The-Talk

It is sad that even during the so-called Amrit Kaal and the ongoing Viksit Bharat period, we keep dividing the people for petty political gains without realising the irreparable damage that we are causing to the nation

Why look for a Shivling in every Masjid?

-Mohan Bhagwat at an RSS camp.

The Ramjanmabhumi Nyas verdict by the Supreme Court is a signed, sealed and delivered document. The Muslim side did not challenge it and accepted. This was in accordance with the promise that the Muslim leaders made to the Shankaracharyas that they would not press their demand for the Babri Masjid on the same land. The soft stand taken by the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board had paved the way for smooth delivery of justice. Moreover, the Board chairman Wasim Rizmi had announced a donation of Rs51,000 from his pocket for the Ram temple.

But the Hindu community has not yet responded with equal feeling of amity while hailing the SC ruling. Remember, the Mandir and Masjid were to be built in the same city but at different locations at the same time. While the temple was built (and inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi amid a lot of controversy) with tonnes of money pouring in, the Muslim community is still struggling to construct the mosque for want of funds.

The Hindu community, the governments at Centre and State could have been magnanimous in lending a helping hand for the mosque, too. But no. That would not have helped in politicising the Hindu-Muslim rift and ultimate polarisation of the Hindu vote bank.

If it was some divine intervention that helped arrive at the judgment (as stated by none other than former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud himself), Godly wisdom should have prevailed on the saffron politicians. Or was it a case of God-proposes-and-man-disposes?

Any sane mind would have thought that the SC verdict would heal once for all the terribly painful wounds caused by the Ayodhya Rath Yatra and the Babri Masjid demolition. Let alone the hardliners, even the top BJP leaders made every possible attempt to widen the Hindu-Muslim divide. We have discussed and experienced the deadly impact of CAA, the mutton-masjid-infiltrator jibes and the deliberate campaign against those who have many children. What more, the leadership has disastrously failed to check cow vigilantism targeting Muslims.

The BJP led by Narendra Modi publicly hails Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel to drive home their point that the Iron Man of India did not agree with Pandit Nehru. At the same time, the BJP leaders seem to forget the strong position taken by Sardar Patel on the minority issue and the need to forget the age-old bitterness and learn to live together. Let me remind them, quoting Subhash C Kashyap, former Lok Sabha Secretary General, what Patel as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Minorities said: “Let us hope that we will leave the legacy of bitterness behind and forget the past and begin with a clean slate. There is much that is happening round us which requires us to dispose of our business as quickly as possible”.

Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on 25th May 1949, Patel said: “…it would be in the interest of all to forget that there is anything like majority or minority in this country, and that in India there is only one community”.

One of the first major communal riots took place in August 1893 in Mumbai in which about a hundred people were killed and 800 injured, stated a paper by the Public Policy Research Centre. The period between 1921 and 1940 marked a particularly difficult phase, it said.

It is sad that even during the so-called Amrit Kaal and the ongoing Viksit Bharat period, we keep dividing the people for petty political gains without realising the irreparable damage that we are causing to the nation. Yes, it is the primary school student in me saying this!

The BJP leaders keep blasting the Congress for practising politics of appeasement and the divide-and-rule policy. But they conveniently forget the fact that they are the ones who are desperately perpetuating the policy of polarisation in the name of Mandir-Masjid-Love Jihad-Land Jihad-Vote Jihad.

With this, one may gain power, but what is its value in a strife-rocked society. The fastest growing economy will soon be the fastest degenerating economy.

The BJP must realise that the Mandir-Masjid survey series are bound to take the nation towards Vinash, instead of any Vikas that PM Modi talks about. It is also the responsibility of the courts to nip the demands for such surveys and ensure rule of law as per the Places of Worship Act that prohibits conversion of any place of worship and to provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947.

The divine-inspired Ramjanmabhumi judgement also quoted this Act. The five-judge bench said on the 1991 Act: “The law addresses itself to the State as much as to every citizen of the nation The State, has by enacting the law, enforced a constitutional commitment and operationalised its constitutional obligations to uphold the equality of all religions and secularism which is a part of the basic features of the Constitution.”

Having said that, let us look at what Justice Chandrachud said in his oral observation while hearing the Gyanvapi mosque dispute on May 20, 2022: ascertaining the religious character of a place of worship was not barred under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act (PWA), 1991.

This literally opened a pandora’s box which can be seen from the series of demands for surveying the mosques and mazars on the pretext that these structures came up on Hindu temples, hundreds of years ago.

The civil judge at Sambhal allowed a petition to survey the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid. This was a classic case of the so-called justice moving with the speed of a bullet train when it was not required. The judge accepted a Hindu group petition and delivered an ex-parte order the same day and within hours the court appointed team visited the mosque. The inspection made a second trip to the mosque, allegedly amid Jai-Sri-Ram slogan shouting which created tension and led to riots in which four people were killed.

As per the Places of Worship Act and the Ramjanmabhumi judgement, the Sambhal petition ought to have been dismissed.

Moreover, Justice Chandrachud had himself said in a different case that "Oral observations in court are in the course of a judicial discourse. The text of a written order is what is binding and enforceable.”. Going by this, courts need to follow what is stated in written orders and not oral observations.

A Karnataka BJP MLA’s call for Ayodhya type agitation - for “restoring” AnubhavaMantapa, a 12th century structure, on which a Muslim shrine was allegedly built – is highly disturbing. So is the clamour to prove that the 800-year-old Ajmer Dargah was originally a Shiva temple.

If this trend is continued to be allowed, it would have serious repercussions for the country. The BJP and the RSS need to reign in their followers, even if they are fringe elements. PM Modi takes pride in talking abroad about India’s inclusive society. But back home, he seems to ignore the communal poison that is shattering the society. RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat has asserted that there is no need to keep searching for Shivling under all mosques. Both Modi and Bhagwat must walk-the-talk. Or else, soon there will be chorus to dig up even the Qutub Minar, Red Fort, Taj Mahal, Charminar, Golconda Fort!

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a Youtube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging)