Babri recall: A million mutinies

Unless we put the Constitution at the centre of our political discourse, we are likely to reap a bitter harvest

On December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was being demolished in a paroxysm of hate and anger, my family and I were in Mumbai, en route to my assignment as India’s high commissioner to Mauritius. We were unable to stir out of our hotel as, in the aftermath of the horrific incident, Mumbai, too, descended into chaos, with violent and bloody communal clashes in several neighbourhoods. We spent the day watching TV channels broadcasting images of this most shameful of episodes in independent India’s history. What was strikingly apparent was the well-planned, indeed well-rehearsed nature of the