By Haider Abbas
As the issue of Gyanvapi Mosque in Benarus all set to snowball, there is an indispensable need to see the case in the light of Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid imbroglio, about how the Muslim side has been ‘left in a lurch’ by the entire judicial system! In this purported age of science, democracy and rule-of-law, it has been the divine-monkey, the Lord Hanuman incarnate, which made Judge Faizabad KM Pandey to open-up the locked up Babri Masjid, since December 22/23 1949, on February 1, 1986. Babri Masjid lay demolished on December 6, 1992. But, hang-on! No one demolished Babri Masjid, there was no Rath-Yatra, no riots, no conspiracy, and all the accused of the Crime No 197/92 and 198/92, filed shortly after demolition, at Ayodhya PS, then Faizabad, have been made to walk free. The Judge SK Yadav, passed the orders on the last day of his retirement, and after it, assumed the office of Deputy Lokayukt. The Judge AK Vishvesh, after ordering ‘worship’ in the basement of Gyanvapi, on his last day of retirement, has taken as ombudsmen of a university.
I, being a lawyer/journalist used to observe from the last benches, from 1996 onwards, while the proceedings of the Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid case at the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, and very vividly remember Justice DV Sharma, at the three judges bench, often seeking the Muslim side to argue over the outer-courtyard of Babri Masjid, as if the inner courtyard belonged to Babri Masjid! Until on his last day of retirement on September 30, 2010, he upheld Lord Rama to have been born exactly where the central dome of Babri Masjid existed, hence, justified the prayer of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Justice DN Agarwal, filed as Suit No. 236 of 1989, that the place of birth of Lord Rama by itself is a deity, on account of faith, which is an inalienable part of Hindu Law. Thus, even by dispossession or discontinuation- the right of temple is not lost. Therefore, Babri Masjid is to be of no consequence, even if it stood for more than 400 years. By the stretch of the same logic, will it not likely to cast its shadow on the cases of Gyanvapi and Shahi Eidgah at Mathura too?
What matters here is also is to refer the curious case of Justice Syed Rafat Alam, the senior Judge at the bench for almost seven years, was sworn-in as Chief Justice Madhya Pradesh in December 2009-almost on the eve of the judgement! If he was to be there in 2010? Considering his profoundness as a Judge and the objectivity he had of the case, the judgement was surely to have been different.
Interestingly, just before the judgement, an application from the Hindu side was dismissed by the Supreme Court, to defer the judgement, due to the ‘last-day’ of Justice DV Sharma! Muslim side did not support it as it had always sought for an early-order, and a day-to-day hearing of the case, which had begun from April 1, 2002 onwards. Come November 9, 2019, and Supreme Court CJI Ranjan Gogoi, the head of the five-judges bench which gave a 5-0 judgement in favour of the Hindu side, was also to retire eight days later.
In fact the CJI designate SA Bobde, in a talk to media before the judgement, had said ‘yes’ four times, when asked if there was a mutual-respect between the government and judiciary and that CJI Ranjan Gogoi always make a consensus before the decision. Was that not a clear indication that unanimously the decision was going to the against the Muslim side? Ranjan Gogoi was later sworn-in as a Rajya Sabha MP, Justice S A Nazeer, of the same bench, later took to oath of Governor Andhra Pradesh later. Weren’t the duo given post-retirement doles? Or was it all routine sobriquets? The beleaguered Muslim side, went for a review-petition which was dismissed in five-minutes.
What merits an attention is that ever since the issue started VHP and others had made it all vocal that courts ‘cannot decide’ on the ‘question of faith’, and that Hindus would never abide if the title-suit goes in favour of Babri Masjid, while the Muslim side from the day-one had stated to comply by the Court. What Muslim side got? It won the case but lost the land. The case went against Muslims, despite SC having accepted that the birth spot of Lord Rama inside the Central Dome of Babri Masjid aka sanctum sanctorum, and its worship could not be proved and that Muslim’s had a continuous possession and prayer for 90 years (1857-1949) on it. The Muslim dream of the ‘rule of law’ ended on a sour note.
Is the same dream of Muslims going to get further soured, as Muslims having lost Babri Masjid, strived for Places of Worship Act 1991, which guaranteed the status-quo of all the religious sites, after exempting Babri Masjid, and despite it, the Hindu worship in the basement of Gyanvapi mosque has started? What Muslims ought to look at for? Will the last vestige of Act of 1991 provide any succor? BJP spokesperson has already challenged it SC. Its outcome will be eagerly awaited.
BJP has now awarded LK Advani, the prime-accused of Babri Masjid demolition, with the highest civilian award-the Bharat Ratna, the same also to Congress PM Narsimha Rao, under whose stewardship Babri Masjid-had turned into a rubble. It had long made its Ex. UP CM Kalyan Singh, a convict of Babri Masjid demolition, a Governor. What is now been left for imagination? The largest democracy has set its examples-all in the name of law!
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The writer is a former UP State Information Commissioner and a political commentator.