December 6 this year marked 32 years after the Babri Masjid, a 16th century national monument in Ayodhya, was brutally razed to the ground, under the supervision of the central government headed by the Congress Party and the Uttar Pradesh government headed by the BJP. Several organisations who have working together for many years, in defence of the rights of our people, came together in a public meeting at Jantar Mantar on this occasion, to condemn the demolition and to take the struggle forward.
“Down with the politics of division of people!”, “Let us take forward the struggle to strengthen our unity!”, “Down with state-organised communal violence and state terror!”, “The guilty must be punished!”, “Forward with the struggle for peace and solidarity!” – these and many other slogans were inscribed on banners all around the meeting venue.
The protest was jointly organised by Lok Raj Sangathan, Social Democratic Party of India, Welfare Party of India, Communist Ghadar Party of India, Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind, Lok Paksh, Citizens for Democracy, Students Islamic Organisation, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, The Sikh Forum, CPI (M-L) – New Proletarian, United Muslims Front, and others. Representatives of participating organisations put forward their views on the issue and on how to take the struggle forward, to put an end to the politics of state-organised communal violence and communal division of the people.
Those who addressed the demonstration included S Raghavan, President of Lok Raj Sangathan, Dr. Rais Uddin of Welfare Party of India, Mohammed Shafi of Social Democratic Party of India, Prakash Rao of Communist Ghadar Party, Dr SQR Ilyas of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Mohammed Salim Engineer of Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind, Ravindra Kumar Yadav of Lok Paksh, ND Pancholi of Citizens for Democracy, and Sheomangal Siddhantkar of CPI (M-L) – New Proletarian. Others present on the occasion included Adv. Shahid Ali of United Muslims Front, Lali Sahani of the Sikh Forum, Dr. Onkar Nath Katiyar of Al-Hind Party as well as activists of Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Woman India Movement, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha etc.
On 6 December 1992, the 16th-century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished by karsevaks, despite assurances given by the Uttar Pradesh government to the Supreme Court that the mosque would not be harmed, the speakers recalled. The Congress-led central government and the BJP led Uttar Pradesh government ensured that the police forces under their command did not intervene to prevent the demolition of the Masjid. BJP leaders, including then party president LK Advani, openly encouraged its destruction.
All facts show that the destruction of Babri Masjid was not a spontaneous act, but was pre-meditated and planned by those in power, the speakers pointed out, with numerous examples.
The Liberhan Commission, which had been set up by the central government 10 days after the demolition, submitted its report 17 years later! The report held 68 people guilty of planning and organising the demolition, including several leaders of BJP. However, in September 2020, a Special CBI Court acquitted all of them, citing lack of evidence. This took place shortly 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. Through this verdict, the Supreme Court justified the criminal act of destruction of the Babri Masjid.
Thousands of people were killed in the communal violence that followed the demolition, in Mumbai, Surat and other places. Although the Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry confirmed that BJP, Congress Party and Shiv Sena leaders had been involved in inciting the communal violence, none of them have been punished.
The fact that both in the demolition of Babri Masjid and in the communal violence which followed, the political parties heading governments at the centre and in the concerned states were actively involved, 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 the political aim of dividing people on communal lines, when masses of working people were uniting in opposition to the attacks on their livelihood and rights.
The speakers pointed out that over the years, the demonisation of Muslims and Sikhs has continued under successive governments. Baseless claims about historical monuments, such as the Gyan Vapi Mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura, and others, are being used to incite communal tensions, with the courts at all levels fully collaborating in this nefarious activity. Recently, at least four people were killed by the police and hundreds injured when police fired on people protesting against a court sponsored investigation by a team of the Archaeological Survey of India into a 16th century mosque in Sambhal city, Uttar Pradesh, to determine whether there was a temple at that site centuries ago! Simultaneously, communal forces with the full backing of the BJP government at the centre have put a case in a Rajasthan court calling for investigation into whether there was a temple beneath the historic Ajmer Sharif Dargah.
The speakers were unanimous in stating that state-organised communal violence is not only an attack on Muslims but an attack on all Indian people of our country. The demanded that those responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid and the unleashing of communal violence in 1992-93 must be punished. They demanded that the right to conscience of every member of society must be respected and protected, as a universal and inviolable right. They pledged to continue the struggle to put an end to the politics of division and for a society in which the rights of all will be safeguarded.