Advani, others get bail as Babri case helps firm up support for Ram temple

Ram temple agenda is at the forefront after BJP scored an emphatic victory in UP

As supporters gathered outside the court premises and raised slogans of ‘mandir wahin banayenge’, the CBI special court today granted bail to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and nine others on personal bonds in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The charge of criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the structure will be framed against the 12 after the court looks at the discharge application that the defence submitted today.

While the court case has been interpreted as a jolt to Advani and Joshi’s hopes to be the presidential candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, the significance of today’s hearing was supporters thronging the court premises in solidarity with Advani and others. They chanted slogans in support of early construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

The assessment in the BJP being that the hearings would help stir support for constructing a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The Ram temple agenda is at the forefront after BJP scored an emphatic victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. With a majority government at the Centre as well as in Lucknow, supporters expect BJP to make efforts to construct the temple. In the morning, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called on Advani at Lucknow’s VVIP guest house. The senior BJP leader arrived at the guest house in the morning.

The Supreme Court had on April 19 ordered the prosecution of Advani (89), Joshi (83), Bharti (58) and other accused for criminal conspiracy. It also directed that the trial be concluded in two years. This would require regular hearings where the senior leaders are expected to be present. Such a timeline also coincides with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, due by April of that year.

BJP leader Vinay Katiyar, VHP's Vishnu Hari Dalmia and one-time Hindutva firebrand Sadhvi Ritambara too presented themselves before the court. Special CBI judge S K Yadav had said on May 26 that no application for an adjournment or exemption from personal appearance would be entertained.

The court, which is hearing two separate cases relating to the demolition of the 16th-century mosque, would also frame charges against Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Ram Vilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma alias Prem Ji, Champat Rai Bansal, Mahant Dharma Das and Satish Pradhan in the second matter.

The Supreme Court had called the destruction of the mosque a "crime" which shook the "secular fabric of the Constitution" while allowing the CBI's plea seeking restoration of criminal conspiracy charge against the four BJP leaders, including Katiyar (62), and Ritambara (53) and Dalmia, who is in his late eighties.

However, the top court had said BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who is the Rajasthan Governor and during whose tenure as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh the disputed structure was razed, was entitled to immunity under the Constitution as long as he held the gubernatorial office.

It had transferred the case against Advani, Joshi, Bharti and three other accused from a Raebareli court to Lucknow for a joint trial in the demolition case.