Twenty years on, the nation is still grappling with the extraordinary wrongness of the act of vandalism in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. No archaeologist or theologian was ever able to prove satisfactorily that the 16th century mosque was built atop the very birthplace of Lord Rama. Even if it was so done by the Mughal emperor Babur, two wrongs could not have made one right. Still L K Advani undertook the 6,000-mile rath yatra across the country and recruited hordes of kar sevaks armed with trishuls and bricks to follow him to Ayodhya “to right a historical wrong”. So, he could not escape the responsibility for the demolition of the disused mosque, though he later described December 6, 1992 as the “saddest day” of his life in a vain bid to downplay his role and throw off his hawkish image.
No less culpable was the Congress party. Rather than repelling the attempts by legions of emotionally-surcharged kar sevaks to enter and tear down the mosque, the then Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao let them descend on Ayodhya and shut himself inside his prayer room till the mosque was razed to the ground. The tumultuous events in Ayodhya convulsed the nation and plunged Hindu-Muslim relations to a worse level than at any time since partition. Hopefully, the Supreme Court ruling, whenever it comes to resolve the issue, will uphold the secular ideal for the sake of the country’s future. We must rise above sectarianism and show more religious tolerance to ensure the continued existence of our secular country.
G David Milton Maruthancode
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