CHENNAI: India on Tuesday remembered the demolition of Babri Masjid by a mob of Kar Sevaks at Ayodhya 30 years ago.
Dr Audrey Truschke, Associate Prof of South Asian history at Rutgers University-Newark noted in a tweet that, “A priceless piece of Indian heritage, destroyed by an iconoclastic Hindu nationalist mob 30 years ago, today.
A special CBI court in Lucknow on September 30, 2020 had acquitted all those, including prominent BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati, who were accused of conspiracy in the case. The court ruled out the conspiracy theories in the demolition of the Mughal era monument.
On the 30th anniversary of the demolition, Muslim women organised a protest in Hyderabad and raised black flags in Saidabad area on Monday, reports said.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter to state that December 6 would remain a black day for Indian democracy. “The desecration and demolition of #BabriMasjid is a symbol of injustice. Those responsible for its destruction were never convicted. We will not forget it & we will ensure that future generations remember it too,” he added.
In Kolkata, the civil society, including political personalities, teachers, and renowned journalists, reportedly recollected the fateful day in Indian history. The left parties took out a rally on Tuesday, NewsClick reported.
In a report, NewsClick quoted journalist and editor of the national daily Times of India, Sougata Roy, as saying that December 6 was an assault on the secular fabric of the country, and the danger persists even today.
“Those who did it, didn’t only demolish a mosque but attacked the very premises of the Constitution. Also, it is a fact that the Supreme Court later allowed the construction of Ram Mandir in the same place. What surprised me on that day (December 6, 1992) was how a city, which was otherwise accommodative and friendly to all religions, changed overnight, showing communal shades in the society,” he said.
The report also quoted poet Mandakranta Sen as saying that December 6 is a black day for democracy in the country, and every December 6, “we double our resolves to fight against the communal hate mongers.”
He said, “The fundamentalists eat, drink and make merry with religions. December 6 is a day to realise not to damage any place of worship but to take everybody along towards the goal of people being able to sleep with a full belly at night.”
A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court had on November 9, 2019, cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque. Following this, a Bhoomi puja was held for the construction of the Ram temple at the Babri Masjid demolition site.
