As we go to the Press the Supreme Court started hearing the case to decide the title rights to 2.77 acre land on which the disputed structure stands. All the Parties, tired and at their tethers end want the case to be decided quickly.
Hope of better amenities and quality of life has been rekindled. A typical Ayodhya Brahman, he has a kiosk kind of shop selling items of ‘prasad’ near the entrance of the makeshift temple. I asked him what he expects now from the promises made by Yogi. First he refused to talk saying he was tired of reporters asking either the same or silly questions for the last 25 years, but when I spoke in Avadhi and told him that my family’s ancestral home and two temples, were in Ayodhya, he opened up.
‘Yogiji has at least been modest enough to say he will try to make UP like Ram Rajya. He did not say he was incarnation of Ram and would establish Ram Rajya. Rather he was positive and made no distinction on communal lines, so Muslims too are hopeful that Hindus and Muslims would live in harmony forever. Remember Advaniji. He was coming here to save Ram riding on a Chariot. He wanted to save Ram, the Purshottam Ram, who is protector of all of us. He was coming here to protect the protector. He should have utmost claimed to be Hanuman.’
And as I was leaving, he said glory to Ayodhya can be restored only if a satisfactory settlement of the Babri Masjid Demolition issue, fractious to put it mildly can be brokered. How worldly-wise this simple, half –literate Brahmin was.
I remember the tension in Faizabad, seven km from Ayodhya and almost an eerie silence in Ayodhya when I came exactly a week before the demolition. As one entered the outskirts of Faizabad while driving from Lucknow, I saw a large number of tents in the huge Maidan. Stationed there were 50,000 jawans of Rapid Deployment Force. Opposite that maidan was Commissioner’s residence. He told me that he did not know much because he had just been posted after three year stint in Brussels, he telephoned the Collector, some Srivastav and told him that he should send an ADM with me to Ayodhya.
As we entered Ayodhya, it seemed that the whole place was shut, most shops seemed closed, no children could be seen, the place came alive when we reached the site. Adjacent to the disputed structure there was a vacant plot. It was bought by VHP, its leaders wanted to expand the temple area once the dispute was resolved. But the state government had through a decree stopped doing anything on the plot. We stood there talking to some locals, when a young man, probably seeing our photographer taking pictures, walked up to me and said he would like to talk about his own feelings.
He was an engineer and had come from P. V. Narasimha Rao’s village. I asked him was he not afraid of dying, 50,000 jawans of RDF were nearby? “I feel blessed. I am 28 and might live for another 60 years, but if I die here, the birthplace of Ram, I will attain moksh. Almost 2000 more are coming from my and nearby villages.” There was no use arguing with him or any other, they were a frenzied lot.
On my way back I met the Collector. He asked me what did I feel, and without a pause I said, the structure will be demolished. The fuse was already lit. The Collector’s hands were shaking as he made tea. A promoted IAS, he was due to retire in six months and was keen to get his two daughters married. “I know by that time I will be suspended.’’
Driving back, I met Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. He asked me the same question, will the Structure stand or be dismantled? my answer was the same it will be dismantled. Kalyan Singh vehemently refuted me and asserted that the 50,000 RDF would be deployed to stop those who might try to take law into their hands.
Muslims and Hindus Of Ayodhya-Faizabad
But here politics enters. The Congress Party fears that if the apex court allows Ram mandir to be built at the site, it will swing votes of millions of grateful Ram bhakts in favour of the BJP in the election in 2019. The Sunni Board is additionally worried that the BJP is in power both at the Centre and the State.
This led to political and not legal slugfest in the preliminary hearing of the case in the three-judge Bench. Kapil Sibal, the former Congress minister and advocate for the Sunni Waqf Board was at his aggressive best and demanded the formation of a bigger Bench and that the case differed until the 2019 election. In fact he and the lawyer for another Muslim outfit questioned the ‘hurry and the timing’ for opening the case now. Obviously, they meant the election in Gujarat. ‘Why was it not heard earlier? Why suddenly now?’ And then he said the case will decide the country’s future..’ and there was also a hint that secularism was under threat.
Does it mean one leaves the title undecided and let it fester like gangrene. And how does the decision on title to a property affect secularism?
One wonders if the Congress and Muslim outfits will let the dispute settled ever. Unless the whole site is awarded to Sunni Waqf Board, which will be gross injustice.
The best thing would be unmindful of what might be transpiring in the Court, Yogi presses on his plans to restore Ayodhya to the glory and prestige, we read it in Dasrath’s era. Let not only the Ram Bhakts but genuine Indian feel proud. Like Varanasi let Ayodhya be on the world map.
Forget about politics and pseudo-secularism, remember the rhythms of the religious town of Ayodhya continue as they have for millennia. It was a sleepy little town, but has been woken up by Yogi.
He has over four years to fulfil the dream of not only the Hindus but Muslims in Ayodhya. True, for they live in the present in the Ayodhya of the past.
By Vijay Dutt
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