Not that the Ram Temple goes open over the trampled Babri
mosque in Ayodhya, the timing of its inauguration by Modi has the significance.
He cunningly chose August 5, the day that completes the year of Indians’
savagery in Kashmir. With the erecting of this temple, 450 years’ history of
subcontinent has gone down the drain, courtesy the fanatic Hindu’s India today.
The verdict by Indian SC with a strange logic and mocking solution of
dividingthe site land into three parts and giving Hindus the actual covered area
speaks of the judges’ fright at the hands of Hindutva. The same court under the
British rule had already given verdict in favour of Muslims, contrary to the
fact that the British Raj had a visible tilt towards Hindus.
India’s archaeological department may that Babri mosque had been built
over a Hindu temple that might have existed hundreds of years ago but this logic
is indigestible thatZahiruddin Babar or his general had built a mosque after
demolishinga temple or an already demolished temple, that too of the biggest
Hindu god, whose birthplace was the same. Why didn’t the Hindu, who were the
only community there, let it ruined? Why didn’t they protest against Babar or
his cohorts? Why didn’t they get the issue solved during Mughal-e-Azam Emperor
Akbar’s rule; after all Akbar was friends to Hindus? Couldn’t they get justice
from Emperor Jehangir or Aurangzeb Alamgir whose system of justice was so
transparent? On what basis the British court ruled against the Hindus and gave
verdict in favour of Muslims? Were they blind or ignorant to archaeological
history? Didn’t the check the evidences available to them? It is not believable
that Hindus had deliberately ignored the birthplace of their god, for years and
centuries.
The decision to build a temple for Lord Ram, and laying its foundation stone on
August 5, is highly intriguing. Last year on August 5, the Modi regime had
revoked Occupied Jammu & Kashmir’s special status, which was already flawed. The
abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A withdrew the special status of the State of
J&K that allowed the Kashmiris to have their own flag and separate system of
governance. This is clearly meant to inflict more pain and inner wound to
Muslims, not only in India but across the world. Many may endorse the logic that
Hindustan is meant for Hindus, but this is not true in the real sense.With this,
Modi has fulfilled a long-term promise to its core electorate.This aggressive
posturing over issues that have dominated the BJP’s politics has raised concerns
of Ayodhya-like campaigns in other places with shared Hindu-Muslim heritage and
history as well.
On the other hand, the judgement is being widely criticized for lacking a sound
legal basis as well as signalling a majoritarian push that compromised on
India’s democratic ethics. The legal trial in the Babri demolition case is yet
to be completed, and justice has eluded those who suffered the loss of life and
properties in the nationwide violence that ensued in the wake of the destruction
of the mosque - often dubbed the darkest chapter of modern India. “The flawed
judgment of the Indian SC paving the way to construction of the temple not only
reflects the preponderance of faith over justice but also the growing
majoritarianism in today’s India where minorities, particularly Muslims and
their places of worship, are increasingly under attack”, FO spokesperson Aisha
Farooqui said while reacting to the intriguing inauguration. She condemned the
construction and urged the international community to play its part in saving
the Islamic heritage from Hindutva, and ensure protection and religious rights
of minorities.”
The temple will remain a blot on the fact of so-called democracy for the times
to come. The extreme haste in starting the construction amid the ravaging
Covid-19 pandemic, anti-Muslim Citizenship Act, the looming National Register of
Citizens to disenfranchise Muslims, the targeted killings of Muslims with state
complicity and other anti-Muslim measures point to the fact that how Muslims in
India are being demonized, dispossessed, marginalized and subjected to targeted
violence. India’s gross and systematic human rights violations in IIOJK and Modi
government’s sinister design to change the demography of occupied territory, all
reflect the rising tide of the divisive and extremist ideology in India, which
poses threat to religious harmony in India, and to regional peace.
Summing up, aleading newspaper’s editorial rightly commented that indeed, the
monster of Hindutva has emerged from the rubble ofBabri mosque and spread its
tentacles across India, smothering minorities, particularly Muslims, and
recreating the country in the image ofSanghParivar. Whether it is cow vigilantes
lynching Muslims on suspicions of eating beef, the shock troops of Hindutva
terrorizing Muslim men, women and children, or the Indian state introducing
discriminatory legislation designed to disenfranchise the Muslim population, all
indications are that hatred and majoritarian arrogance have now been
mainstreamed in India. The ideologues of the Sangh have never accepted Pakistan
and constantly seek to provoke this country, while internally they are meting
out treatment to Indian Muslims not too different to what the fascists of Europe
did to Jews in the 20th century. There is great horror and revulsion over Nazi
crimes — and rightly so. But though the Hindutva brigade is seeking to replicate
what their ideological twins did in Europe during World War II, the world is
mostly quiet, courting the ‘world’s largest democracy’ that looks the other way
as its Muslim citizens are beaten, harassed and murdered.
Coming times will tell what comes next, though there must prevail peace and
Modi-BJP’s anti-Muslim thirst must at least be quenched, no matter for the time
being. This is only a reminder for Muslims of subcontinent and world over to
join hands together and take a unified course against Muslim demonization and
persecution in India. Otherwise they are doomed to failure rather extinction.