Charges were levelled against top BJP leaders- LK Advani, Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi for their involvement in the demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya. The case should have been wrapped up in 2 years but it is still pending 25 years later. The CBI stated that the delay in concluding the case was because everyone associated with the matter was aware of the sensitivity of the issue. Admittedly, law’s delay is characteristic of the judicial system in India especially in communal cases. That is why communal riots scar the face of the country. Everybody involved in the Ayodhya case should attach importance to the principle that law should take its course and that right is done. Proceedings should be quickly terminated so that communalism is not stoked up. The BJP should therefore refrain from politicising the Ayodhya dispute.
Because of the BJP’s thumping victory in the UP election and Aditya Yogi taking office as the CM in the state, a feeling has been generated that steps should now be taken to build a Ram temple on the site of the Babri Mosque which was pulled down in 1992. Little thought is given to the fact that it will go against religious freedom guaranteed in the Constitution and the commitment of the PV Narasimha Rao government to restore the Babri Mosque. The Supreme Court has noted that the demolition of the Babri Mosque was a crime shaking the fabric of the Constitution. Union Minister Uma Bharti’s current stand on the issue seems accordingly a defiance of the law of the land.
