The Judgment Day!!!

As I write these words, the court and the nation are gearing up for one of the most anticipated verdict of modern Bharat. Sitting in Kenya and saying this is very easy for me, but I am sure most of people in Bharat knows and thinks, that it is no longer relevant what the judgment will be in the Ram Janam Bhoomi title suit. So many years have passed, so much have been said and done and people [read masses] have long lost the interest; 60 years is too much time to wait for any judgment.

For those who have joined late [the average urban Indian, who is not bothered by petty and unnecessary issues like the Ayodhya Ram Janam Bhoomi or ‘Ram Setu’ for that matter] the judgment being talked about here is not ‘Terminator-2 The Judgment Day’ but that of the 60 year old court case in Allahabad high court, regarding the ownership of the disputed land, Ram Janam Bhoomi [where Babri Masjid once stood] in Ayodhya.

Since I mentioned the aloof urban Bharatiya, so let us first talk about that. I am not sure about the picture in other states and cities of Bharat, but when I say urban India, I mainly have Delhiites in mind. Being born and bought up in Delhi, and after spending 24 years of my life here [out of 24 years of total life] I can be pretty sure about what and how people think here [especially of my age group] and people just don’t care who win or lose the case. It is not at all their concern whether there should be a temple or a mosque at Ram Janam Bhoomi, they have bigger concerns. I don’t know if this attitude is right or wrong, but all I know this is their attitude. You talk to anyone, and they not only say this is all crap, but they are always game for bashing up those who say there should be a temple, because all they know a mosque stood there and rightfully it should be restored.

This reminds me of the history of this age old dispute, which Roti once told me in great details. Post independence, in 1950 few idols of Lord Ram were found at Babri Masjid and it was after that, the Ram Janam Bhoomi movement started, and as soon as the matter became sub-judice the court closed the compound.

In Islam, mosques are never named after a person; Babri Masjid is named after Babar, who started building it. But as luck would have it the mosque was never completed and till date no prayers have been offered there. Originally Babri Masjid was called Masjid-e-Janamsthan. Anyways, till late 1980s Ram Janam Bhoomi dispute was not a mass moment, until the then Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi opened the gates of the land whose title was being fought in the court, and it was after that, Mr. L K Advani brought the matter to centre stage and started his revolutionary ‘rath-yatra’ to make it a mass movement. Mr. Advani on many occasions mentioned, that BJP  supported the temple movement because there are other political parties in the country with anti temple agenda. Anyways, Mr. Advani’s rath-yatra, redefined the movement and in 1991 the mosque was demolished by an agitated mob. Riots broke out across the country and rest, as they say, is history.

Every now and then, someone talks about resolving the issue by talks; the most recent was Supreme Court for a brief period of time. But the time of talks have long gone. When BJP, VHP and RSS intervened in the issue and took it on a national level, their first way out was talks. During the movement a particular notion was very famous ‘teen nahi toh tees hazar, baki bache na koi majar’. Across the country there are around 30,000 temples on which various Mughal emperors over the period of time have built mosques. The RSS demanded that 3 out of these 30,000 be shifted; but for them the one at Ram Janam Bhoomi was the main concern, and out of all the alternative solutions proposed, the most viable and feasible was shifting the complete mosque structure from its location to somewhere else and installing it there as it is. But as we all know nothing of that sort ever happened and here we are waiting for the judgment.

This brings me to the last point ‘The Judgment’. For all I know, there are three certain things to happen. One, no matter what the verdict is, there will be an appeal in the Supreme Court, and another long wait [probably longer than the current 60 years] will began. Second, no matter what the judgment will be, there will not be any sort of violence or something in the country. All in all it will be mostly peaceful affair, as the losing party will definitely downplay it. Third, the verdict will be one which will not be easy to comprehend, and after reading between the lines, if at all something will be clear, then the title of the land will certainly not be given to ‘fanatic and radical Hindu organizations’; afteral Bharat is secular, and that means the title should go to the Muslim Wakf Board, the rightful owner of ‘Ram Janam-Bhoomi’, where once ruins of ‘Masjid -e- Janamsthan’ stood.

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