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Babri mosque demolition : Implications of the Court verdict

	September 22, 2003

In a major development which could have far reaching consequences for the ruling BJP at the Centre, the Rae Bareli Court dealing with the Babri mosque demolition case ordered framing of charges against seven leading lights of the Sangh Parivar including Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, but surprisingly discharged Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, the chief architect of the Temple Movement in Ayodhya.

The court found grounds to proceed against the other six accused in the case, including former Union Minister, Uma Bharti, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Ashok Singhal.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had pleaded that the court charge the VHP leaders Sadhvi Ritambhara, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, and the present Uttar Pradesh BJP chief, Vinay Katiyar, besides Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti and Ashok Singhal under Sections 147 (rioting), 149 (committing a crime), 153A and 153 B (spreading communal frenzy) and 505 (creating ill-will) of the Indian Penal Code. What was missing was the conspiracy charge thanks to successive UP governments not issuing a notification as advised by the High Court.

Observers note that for the BJP, the timing of the court decision couldn’t have been better. Gearing up to lend it a helping hand is the RSS-VHP combine with rallies in Delhi and Lucknow on October 15, followed by a march to Ayodhya. The more the Opposition slams the BJP on the temple movement, the more the BJP hopes to gain.

While Muslim leaders expressed shock at the court’s decision to discharge Advani and hinted that they would challenge it, the Sangh (RSS) leaders welcomed the verdict. The happiest were those who have been charged. Whether it was Vinay Katiyar or Uma Bharati or Ashok Singhal of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, they were all unanimous in declaring that they were ready for any “sacrifice” for the sake of the Ram temple.

UP BJP chief Vinay Katiyar welcomed the decision to let off Advani. “As for the rest of us,” he said, “we welcome the chance given by the court to put forward our case on the temple issue. We are confident we will not only be able to prove that we committed no crime but also expose the pseudo-secularists who have been politicising the issue with an eye on the Muslim votebank.”

Co-accused VHP leader Ashok Singhal said in Lucknow: “We take orders from the sadhus and sants alone and do not accept the court’s role in the resolution of the Ayodhya dispute.” Uma Bharati echoed this saying her seven “previous generations have been blessed with the latest developments.”



Advani’s reaction

Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, reacting to the court order, said he was mystified why only he-out of the eight accused-had been discharged by the Rae Bareli court. For, his solitary discharge by Magistrate V K Singh implies that in the court’s opinion, Advani shared the dais in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 with “an unlawful assembly” of other Sangh Parivar leaders but he did not share their “common object” of provoking riots and communal frenzy. This despite the fact that on May 31, the CBI chargesheeted all the eight leaders for their collective responsibility in “instigating the demolition.”

Singh is reported to have discharged Advani because of two conflicting testimonies of witnesses cited by the CBI. One set of witnesses said that Advani was heard appealing to the kar sevaks to calm down and not violate the Supreme Court’s status quo order. But another set of witnesses pointed out that Advani did nothing to restrain a leader like Rithambara from repeatedly chanting provocative slogans from the same dais.

The order is also at odds with the CBI’s version of what happened that day (December 1992). Both Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were alleged by the CBI to have sat in the front row of the dais for seven hours till the last of the three domes of the Babri Masjid were demolished around 5 pm. Yet, surprisingly one has been discharged while the other isn’t.

Ignoring pleas of party leaders including Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi resigned from the Union Cabinet shortly after the special court in Rae Barelli pronounced that charges would be framed against him and six others in the Babri masjid demolition case. He sent in his resignation to the Prime Minister. A strong section of the BJP reportedly feels the court orders do not pertain to any corruption case and the issue was mainly political and there was no need for any one to quit the government.

Asking Joshi not to quit, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani described his feelings on the Rae Barelli court judgement exonerating him as “mixed” and said it could have been one of elation had the remaining seven accused also been freed. “It certainly gives me relief. It would have been a feeling of elation if all my colleagues had also been exonerated, which has not happened,” Advani said reacting to the court decision to frame charges against the remaining accused.

The Deputy PM accused the Opposition of making a systematic attempt to malign him over the Ayodhya movement as they termed the movement as communal which undermined secularism . Advani said “The Ayodhya movement got the people’s support because we were able to convey to the masses in the country that India is a secular state and treats all its citizens, irrespective of their faiths, as equals”. But for the sake of sheer vote bank politics, secularism was being projected in a very perverse manner and that was pseudo-secularism,” he said.

He said, “To the best of my knowledge no speeches were made (on the day disputed structure was demolished), neither by me nor Dr Joshi nor anyone else. The people participated in the Ram temple movement as they felt that the temple should be built in the place which is believed to be the birthplace of Rama. That enabled BJP to become the largest party because they (people) accepted the logic of our own definition of secularism and reacted strongly to the Congress brand of pseudo-secularism,” Advani pointed out.



VHP defiant, will fight case in court

Taking strong exception to the decision by a Rae Barelli court to chargesheet him and six others in the Babri masjid demolition case, VHP senior vice president Acharya Giriraj Kishore has said he believed the chargesheet “was not right.”

Asked about the course of action for VHP, Kishore said the Parishad members named in the case will stick to their stand.

“We have not committed any offence. Every Hindu has a right to construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya,” he said. Claiming that the “karsevaks did not demolish any mosque”, Kishore said, “Since 1950, there was a functional temple by a court order.”

Meanwhile, VHP International President Ashok Singhal has demanded if a legislation on the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya was not possible, the government should go in for referendum to decide the issue. “We reiterate our demand that the Central government should enact a legislation by convening a special session of Parliament... If a legislation was not possible, government should go for general elections on the issue of Ram Janambhumi temple at Ayodhya,” he told reporters.

Mass mobilisation programmes would be held across the country to garner support for the construction of the temple, Singhal said, adding the movement would be peaceful and disciplined. Stating that the RSS has decided to take “active participation” in the movement, he said, “if the BJP wished so, then they could also join us.” Elaborating the stepped up campaign, he announced three to four lakh ‘Rambhaktas’ (devotees) would participate in ‘jan jagran yatra’ in Ayodhya, on October 17, which will be preceded by a similar one in Delhi on October 15 and in Lucknow a day after.

Stating that the temple movement had assumed the stature of a cultural movement, Singhal said, “any repressive action on the part of UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav will attract reaction.”



CBI misused : Congress reaction

Accusing Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani of misusing his position to get himself “discharged” in the Babri masjid demolition case, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have said that the prosecution “worked under duress”.

“The acquittal of Advani from the case in which the Rae Barelli court has decided to frame charge against the seven other accused vindicated Congress’ stand that the prosecution has worked under duress and not been able to conduct itself impartially,” CLP leader Pramod Tewari alleged. Demanding Advani’s resignation, he said, “When others accused of the same charge will be facing trial, he has been discharged and this proves that Advani has misused his position to wriggle out of the case.”

“The developments also confirm our view that the senior most leadership of the BJP was responsible for the most severe crime committed in independent India when the Babri mosque was razed to ground on December 6, 1992”. The Congress has also demanded that CBI file an appeal over the verdict of the special court of Rae Bareli in the Babri Masjid demolition case, which has discharged Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and wanted acceptance of the resignation of HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. Party spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy said that the discharge of Advani was a “clear and massive example of sabotage” by CBI as the prosecuting agency “conspired to get the prime conspirator liberated in the case.”

UP Samajwadi Party chief Ram Saran Dass urged the court to review its decision to discharge Deputy Prime Minister. On the other hand, the CPI-M commented the CBI and not the judiciary had acquitted Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani by filing a “diluted” chargesheet. “It is not the judiciary but the CBI that has acquitted Advani by filing a diluted chargesheet,” CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury remarked.



BJP appeal for handing over the disputed site

Unfazed by the special court in Rae Bareli framing charges against BJP leaders in Babri masjid demolition case, the BJP, saying it was proud to be associated with the Ram temple movement, appealed to the Muslims to hand over the disputed site at Ayodhya to Hindus. “The BJP is proud to be associated with the Ram temple movement and we appeal Muslims to hand over the disputed site to Hindus to resolve the vexed issue in the wake of the ASI report,” BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters. The Ram Janmabhoomi issue had political overtones and BJP would face it legally as well as politically, he said.

Referring to the Rae Bareli court’s order to frame charges against BJP leaders, Naidu said: “Let the law take its own course” but added: “We shall fight the legal battle and will certainly not give up.” The BJP president once again charged the erstwhile Congress government had filed the case but BJP-led NDA government had decided to fight the legal battle rather than choosing to withdraw the chargesheet.

Naidu ruled out any impact of the Rae Bareli court’s decision to frame charges against seven BJP leaders, on the survival of the NDA government. The BJP chief attacked the Opposition, particularly CPI, for expressing surprise over the discharge of Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani from the case.

CBI, which had filed the case, was an independent agency and BJP-led NDA government had not applied any pressure to absolve Advani from the case, he claimed. About other BJP leaders against whom the court had decided to frame charges, Naidu said: “They were not holding any ministerial posts. They would continue to hold the respective posts in the party. Uma Bharti would continue to be the party’s chief campaigner for Madhya Pradesh”.

In Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where assembly polls are due, he said the BJP will focus on national integration, law and order security and progress and development issues. Hitting out at the Congress and failure of its governments in various states, the BJP leader said every year this party was stalling proceedings in Parliament. “The more they talk about Ayodhya issue the more we gain out of it,” Naidu said adding, his party would highlight the failures of Congress-led governments in various states.



The verdict and after

Observers note there is at least one BJP leader, who has gained in stature after the Rae Bareli court decided to frame charges against the Sangh Parivar leaders in the Babri demolition case. Sticking to his word, HRD Minister M.M. Joshi sent in his resignation letter promptly. He has sought to consolidate his position as the Sangh Parivar’s (RSS family) favourite man in the BJP triumvirate that includes Vajpayee and Advani.

Aware of his clout in the Parivar, the BJP high command, presently dominated by Advani loyalists, got into damage-control mode as soon as the news of the unfavourable order arrived from Rae Bareli. Almost everybody, including L.K. Advani, telephoned him with the request for a change of mind.

In an election year, nobody wants the already distinct fault lines on the Parivar-BJP track to deepen. Besides, Joshi, whose credentials as the Sangh’s frontline intellectual have never been in dispute, is indispensable to the Parivar’s struggle to dig deep into the national psyche.

The word from the Prime Minister was that Dr. Joshi “had acted in haste” - the party was confident that Vajpayee would “sort out the matter” after his return from New York. The Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, made light of the charges against the seven BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders. He told reporters that it was “only a case of an unlawful assembly and Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot)” and not a case of “moral turpitude or corruption.”

In the days prior to the Rae Bareli court order, the party held several strategy meetings - at the residences of Naidu and Advani, including a meeting on September 19 before the court order was pronounced. Although Joshi - described by the party spokesperson as a very senior leader - was an affected person, he was not invited for these meetings. The party’s view is that by resigning Joshi has made the party position - that the Babri demolition case is politically motivated - untenable. Moreover, if he insisted on remaining outside the Cabinet, with what face could the BJP continue to project Uma Bharti, also chargesheeted in the same case, as a chief ministerial candidate?

Several Sangh Parivar leaders have congratulated Joshi for his stand and he is seen as having occupied the high moral ground, which is not to the liking of a powerful camp in the party that is decidedly anti-Joshi. The pro-Advani group is worried that Joshi might succeed in snatching the temple card and endear himself to the sangh hotheads. The confusion, bordering on an all-out faction fight, will clear up only after Vajpayee’s return.