Almost 28 years after one of the worst communal outrages in the history of independent India, a special CBI court in Lucknow has acquitted all 32 accused, including BJP veterans and former deputy prime minister LK Advani, former union HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi, former union minister Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, current union minister Sakshi Maharaj former Uttar Pradesh CM Kalyan Singh, citing lack of ‘conclusive’ proof of their involvement in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6,1992. The voluminous 2300- paged evidence produced in court by the CBI did not prove that the demolition was planned in advance but happened on the spur of the moment. BJP leader L.K. Advani led several thousand strong ‘rath yatra’ beginning on September 25,1990 from Somnath temple in Gujarat across several States. Advani addressed a series of crowds across several states, vowing to construct the Ram mandir at Ayodhya. It was a courtship through religious sentiments and ultimately, the aggressive mobilisation resulted in the destruction of the masjid on December 6, 1992, despite the assurances given by the BJP government of Kalyan Singh. The CBI produced more than 350 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence before the court. However, these came to nought. The judgement thus left unanswered the questions- Who hatched the conspiracy to demolish the mosque? Who incited the frenzied mob — comprising tens of thousands, if not lakhs, of kar sevaks –who went berserk with hammers and axes? Also what happened to the well-documented role of senior politicians in fanning the flames? Unfortunately, the CBI has no answers to these all-important questions. Once dubbed by the apex court as a ‘caged parrot’ the CBI has to explain why the case fell flat despite all the oral evidence, TV footage and newspaper reports. The CBI court’s findings are at variance with those of Justice MS Liberhan Commission, which had concluded in its 2009 report that the masjid demolition was planned and systematic. The demolition had triggered riots that claimed nearly 2,000 lives across India. The acquittal of senior BJP leaders comes less than a year after a five-judge Bench led by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi on November 9, 2019, decided the Ayodhya title dispute and ruled in favour of Ram Lala, paving the way for construction of Ram Temple. Just as BJP leaders took credit for the Supreme Court ruling for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, they are likely to use the special court’s judgment in the Babri demolition case to ‘reconstruct’ the BJP’s image. The judgement will also buttress the BJP’s rejections in the past of the allegations by Congress that the demolition was a pre-planned conspiracy. The Congress party didn’t do the rath yatra that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid but it was responsible for opening the gates which, literally and metaphorically, has led to a majoritarian India. After Supreme Court judgement on the dispute and then the CBI court’s acquittal of BJP leaders, there is growing clamour by Hindu saints and seers for the “liberation” of Mathura and Kashi, by removing two mosques. The popular saying “alls well that ends well” is a misnomer for all right thinking citizens, since politics and not justice has been served.
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