Call of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 29 November 2024
The 6th of December this year marks the 32nd anniversary of the demolition of the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, known as Babri Masjid.
Just a few days before 6 December 1992, the Supreme Court allowed the gathering of Kar Sewaks at Ayodhya to do a bhoomi puja (ground breaking ceremony), on the basis of an “assurance” by the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh that no harm would be allowed to be inflicted on the mosque. The Congress-led central government ordered its security forces deployed near Ayodhya to stay away from the site. The UP government ordered its police forces to do the same. Kar Sevaks armed with instruments to carry out the demolition climbed the dome of Babri Masjid even as BJP leaders headed by the party president LK Advani egged them on.
All available facts show that the destruction of Babri Masjid was not a spontaneous act, as is made out in official records. It was pre-meditated and planned in advance by those in power.
The Liberhan Commission, which was set up by the central government 10 days after the demolition, submitted its report only in 2009. The report held 68 people guilty of planning and organising the demolition, including several leaders of BJP. However, a Special CBI Court acquitted all of them in September 2020, citing lack of evidence. This took place after the Supreme Court had decided in November 2019 that a Ram temple must be built on the land on which the mosque had stood, even though it found no evidence that a temple had been destroyed at that site in the 16th century. This verdict of the Supreme Court had the effect of justifying the criminal act of destruction of the historical monument.
The destruction of Babri Masjid was followed by communal violence in Mumbai, Surat and many other places, in which thousands of people were killed. The Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry confirmed that BJP, Congress Party and Shiv Sena leaders had been involved in inciting the communal violence. However, none of the leaders of these parties have been punished in the 32 years since these crimes were committed.
The involvement of the parties in charge of governments at the centre and in the concerned states, both in the demolition of Babri Masjid and in the communal violence which followed that act, and the failure of the judiciary to punish any of the leaders of these guilty parties confirm that these criminal acts were all part of a deliberate plan of the ruling class.
The campaign to build a Ram temple at the site where the mosque had stood had a political aim, while it was presented as being motivated by religious belief. The political aim was to incite Hindus and Muslims against one another, at a time when masses of working people were uniting in opposition to the attacks on their livelihood and rights.
Beginning in the decade of the 1980s, and more openly in the 1990s, the ruling bourgeois class began to abandon the pretence of building a socialistic pattern of society and embraced the prescriptions of market-oriented reforms promoted by the World Bank and IMF. This change of course showed that capitalist development in our country had reached a stage when Indian monopoly houses had embarked on an aggressive global expansionist drive. The change of course was promoted by the Rajiv Gandhi government as a drive towards modernization, and later by the Narasimha Rao government as the program of globalisation, through liberalisation and privatisation.
In order to implement the anti-social program in the face of mass opposition by workers, peasants, women and youth, the ruling class resorted to organising communal polarization. The army assault on the Golden Temple and the genocide of Sikhs in 1984 was followed by the election campaign of Congress Party in 1985 under the banner of “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan!” The campaign to build a Ram temple at the site where Babri Masjid stood served to further divide the people on a communal basis. The ruling class deployed its two main political parties — Congress Party and BJP — as well as various other organisations, to implement this divisive anti-people agenda.
Over the past 32 years, the demonising of Muslims and Sikhs, portraying them as terrorists and enemies of the unity and integrity of India, has continued under governments headed by Congress Party and BJP. Calls to destroy various places of worship continue to be used for inciting communal conflicts.
Claims that the ancient Gyan Vapi Mosque in Varanasi was built after demolishing a temple are being heard in the courts. Courts are hearing petitions claiming that the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura is built on the very place where Krishna was born. In Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and other states, claims that mosques had been built by destroying temples are being heard in the courts. The Archeological Survey of India has been pressed into service to gather evidence for such claims.
On 25 November, at least four people were reported shot dead and dozens sustained grievous injuries, when police fired on people protesting against a court sponsored team which went to the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal city of Uttar Pradesh. The team had gone to investigate whether a temple had been destroyed and a mosque built in its place, over 500 years ago.
The people of India have nothing to gain and much to lose by supporting calls for the destruction of mosques which were allegedly built after demolishing temples hundreds of years ago. Such acts of revenge only serve to spread hatred and enmity between people of different religious faiths. They serve to destroy the unity of workers and peasants against the exploitative and oppressive rule of the bourgeoisie.
The main struggle in the country is between the bourgeoisie headed by the monopoly capitalists on one side, and the masses of exploited and oppressed people on the other side. Inciting conflicts based on religion is part of the method of rule of the bourgeoisie.
The immediate task facing all progressive forces is to build and strengthen the political unity of people against the divisive politics of the ruling class and its trusted parties. We must unite around the principle that every person has the Right to Conscience, which the state is duty bound to protect. Once this is accepted, there is no question of any religious belief being majority or minority. One may worship any God or may believe that there is no God. The belief of every individual is as valid as that of any other individual.
We must unite around the principle that the state is duty bound to protect the rights of every individual, irrespective of his or her belief. When the state fails to protect any section of the people, those in command must be held responsible. Those who use state power to organise crimes against the people must be most severely punished.
The struggle against communalism and communal violence must be waged with the aim of replacing the existing state of bourgeois rule by a new state of workers’ and peasants’ rule. Such a state will protect the lives and rights of all human beings, without exception. It will promptly and severely punish those who violate the right of any member of society.