Oct 2/10
Babri verdict
While the cursory attempt of the Court to reconcile this dispute by dividing the land three ways may be welcome, a disturbing question remains.
…What was being decided here was the civil dispute over land ownership alone–not matters of faith– while the two criminal cases over the illegal and unconstitutional demolition of the Babri Mosque on 6.12.1992, in full public view, provoked by political and religious leaders are still pending. How have the Judges justified their silence on the criminal acts of 1992, acts that were bloody as they cost human lives apart from willfully destroying a Mosque and 1949?
What will the impact of this verdict be on what were clearly and blatantly a violent and illegal act? Related to this is the critical question, can and should Courts adjudicate on matters of faith?
I recall Baba Laldas’ interviews in Raam Ke Naam, a film by Anand Patwardhan when he analysed the motives behind the movement, the kind of violence that led up to 6.1.2.1992. He was mysteriously killed in 1993…He was the Court appointed Mahant who’s bodyguard was removed by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh…His suspicious death has also gone judicially unaddressed…The Judgment has given legal sanction to a brazenly barbaric politics of majoritarianism.
Teesta Setalvad
Mumbai
