By
Haider Abbas
August 7,
2019
The final battle
to the nation’s most vexed problem Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid title suit, which
has bogged the country from the past seven decades, has started from onwards to
August 6th, on the basis of a day-to-day hearing, which means i.e. every
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, in a
constitution bench at the Supreme Court of India headed by Chief Justice of
India Rajan Gogoi, Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok
Bhushan and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer . This hearing in SC was necessitated after
Muslim side and Hindu side, went ahead to challenge the Lucknow bench of
Allahabad High Court judgement of Sep 30, 2010, in which one-third of Babri
Masjid site was given to Muslim side and two-third of it to the Hindu sides.
The stage
for day-to-day hearing had to be set, after the abysmal result of the
mediation-process, which SC had ordered in March under retired SC Justice
Khalifullah, Sri Sri Ravishanker and Sriram Panchu, failed to bring any
solution, in fact this result was a foregone conclusion when one of the
panelist Sri Sri Ravishanker is known to have been playing to the Hindutva
gallery since more than a decade, had made it well clear, that was for a Mandir
on the site where Babri Masjid stood, even before the mediation could start.
Since, the
issue has now reached its historical juncture, and no doubt, it concerns every
citizen of the country, whether religious, Hindu, Muslim, Communist or
Agnostic, Sikh, Parsi, Dalit or Christian, as the destiny of the country will
be carved out as a result of it. The Hindutva organisations (VHP, Bajrang Dal
RSS etc) time and again, since decades, have openly declared that they would
not abide by the SC judgement if it goes against them and Muslims have always
maintained to go by it. The present UP BJP CM Yogi Adityanath, has as yet
(August 4) expressed confidence that SC would respect the public (Hindu)
sentiments which is nothing but intimidating the highest court to finally
adhere to the making of Ram Temple on the demolished site of Babri Masjid.
BJP and its
leaders, despite being in the highest of positions have never shied from
bringing ignominy towards judicial institutions as who can forget BJP PM AB
Vajpayee, famous retort on his visit to Staten Island., USA, in Sep 2000, that
he was a Swamsevak (of RSS) first (not the PM) and no one would deny him that
right, and only three months later, on
demolition of Babri Masjid anniversary, on Dec 6, 2000, he had said that
construction of Ram Temple is a ‘national sentiment’, howsoever painful Babri Masjid demolition
might be for Muslims. RSS and its affiliates have always celebrated Dec 6 as a
victory day (death anniversary of BR Ambedker too). Babri Masjid demolition accused
LK Advani, MM Joshi, Vinay Katiyar and 49 others are nowhere even remotely
close to be brought to justice, and on the contrary at the crest of power,
whereas Muslim, are battered, bruised and down and not as yet out, as for
Muslims, Babri Masjid, reclamation on its original site, warranted by the
apex-court, is the only last recoup. There is no specific proof from any
historical or archaeological, contemporary or near-contemporary source, which
might prove, that a temple, much less the grand Ram Temple, or a Vikramaditya
temple (1BC), was demolished and Babri Masjid built on it in 1528.
The Hindu
side is euphoric as it has a brute majority in UP Assembly as well as in Centre.
BJP cardinal promises i.e. to make Ram Temple on where Babri Masjid existed
have always been enamoured hard on its every manifesto. Throughout the last
five years, BJP and its allies did not let the issue be slipped and
successfully kept its constituency engaged with it. Abrogation of Article 370
in Kashmir has been done, Uniform Civil Code is now only a few steps behind as
Triple Talaq Bill, mandating a Muslim for three years jail in case of utterance
of instant triple Talaq has been accented by President Ram Nath Kovind, it can
be anybody’s guess that BJP is too close to the fulfilment of its political
affirmations, the final culmination of it would be Hindu Rajya (State) and not
Hindu Rashtra (Nation) as that is what India has always been. The baton with
which the Hindu rightist forces routinely accuse of every misfortune which
befell the majority Hindus was for the inclusion of the terms ‘Secular’ and
‘Socialist’ into our Preamble whereas it is juxtaposed for Muslims, for having
been wronged routinely and consistently since independence, whether with or
without these words.
In these
hard times, which have been unabated from at least since three decades, Muslims
have picked up the cudgels to take on the Hindutva forces inside the SC. But,
ironically, Muslims have not been alone in their strive as Hindus, quite
incredibly, contributed to this endeavour too. This is the exact time to let
the nation know of it. When Babri Masjid Action Committee was formed on Feb 6,
1986, five-days after the opening of Babri Masjid locks, Ram Shanker Upadhaya,
a Saryupari Brahmin, from Basti UP, a staunch Lord Rama devotee, immediately
went for Darshan but ended up as a witness from the Muslim side, before the
Special Full Bench, hearing the case at High Court Lucknow.

Ram
Shanker Upadhaya
I had the
privilege to interview him on one of his visits to Lucknow in 2004. He was
offered BJP ticket to withdraw his testimony from the HC but he did not budge. He was utterly
convinced that Babur did not demolish Ram Temple and argued that Babri Masjid
was built in 1528 and the great Hindu scholar Tuslidas wrote his magnum opus
Ramcharitramanas in 1631 Samvat. By that standard Babri Masjid was 476 years
old while Ramcharitramanas was written 429 years back. Had there been any
demolition or even a demolition attempt then Tulsidas would certainly not have
forgotten to elaborate, on a matter, which could be construed to be of extreme
importance in relation to Lord Rama. He was truly in alignment with Akshay
Brahamchari who expounded the cause of Babri Masjid since 1949, whom I had
interviewed too.

Akshay
Brahamchari
Brahamchari
had narrated to me his eye-witness accounts that he had got Hindus ready to
remove the idols of Rama, which had been surreptitiously and stealthily placed
inside Babri Masjid on Dec 22/23, 1949, but Faizabad DM KK Nayyer told him that
CM Govind Ballabh Pant was not in Lucknow and Chief Secretary ICS Bhagwan Sahay
had asked him to let the things remain-the-same until the CM arrives.
Brahamchari was secretary-general of Congress in Faizabad and 27 years of age
then. He had further told me that after the murder of MK Gandhi, RSS had to
submit a Muafinama (apology letter), which had humiliated it, and then RSS
devised a yagna near Babri Masjid, at Ganj-e-Shaheeda, (the graveyard of
Muslims), adjacent Babri Masjid, and Hindu Mahasabha Digvijay Nath, Bhao Rao
Deoras (the then UP in-change of RSS), along with DM connived and idols were
put inside in Babri Masjid which was followed by RSS men uprooting Muslim
graves and five of them were implicated too. Brahamchari remained true to his
commitment to Babri Masjid and met PM Rajiv Gandhi as well as PM Narsimha Rao
to relate the concerns of restoration of Babri Masjid to Muslims, until he
breathed his last in May 2010 in Lucknow. RS Uphadhaya is also no more.
It may be
as interesting to note that Muslim side, as a part of its oral evidence
produced 28 witnesses and their testimonies were recorded well into 3343 pages,
out of the overall 13,426 pages which ran into 54 volumes and which have now
been translated and put before the SC.
The number of Hindus who appeared on behalf of the Muslim side are a
staggering 10 with one Parsi as Prof Shireen Ratnagar. Prof Ram Sharan Sharma
was the founding Chairman of the prestigious Indian Council for Historical
Research, and it was in the same office where Zafaryab Jilani, the co-convenor
of Babri Masjid Action Committee met him along with Mushtaq Ahmed Siddiqui-an
eminent lawyer, hailing from Faizabad and one of the key persons of BMAC. RS
Sharma testified from the Muslim side in HC. Muhammed Azam Khan is the other
co-convenor.
Babri
Masjid campaign would never be complete unless the yeoman services of the kind
of eminent historians, lawyers and archaeologists like Prof DN Jha, Prof
Shireen Moosvi, Prof D Mandal, Prof Suraj Bhan, Prof Supriya Verma, Prof
Shireen Ratnagar, Prof Jaya Menon, Prof Sitaram Rai, Prof Suresh Chandra Misra,
Prof Susheel Srivastava who also wrote a book on Babri Masjid, are to be
emblazoned for their tryst with justice and law. It is also to be put to record
that these personalities were given their TA/DA by virtue of an order by
Justice UC Srivastava and Justice Haider Abbas passed in 1989 that ‘state shall
pay for it’, or otherwise it would have been very hard for the funds-stricken
BMAC. The Hindu side could not fathom a single Muslim appear on its behalf! One
small time archaeologist KK Muhammed, who suffers from foot-in-mouth disease,
duly awarded Padam Shri by Narendra Modi government in 2019, parroted the
Hindutva line, of an existing Ram Temple below Babri Masjid, which the Muslim
side totally bulldozed as ASI was by itself hell bent to establish the
temple-theory, whereas the fact is that below the Babri Masjid site were other
mosques facing Mecca.
The BMAC
story is just an assimilation of a bunch of lawyers, who forsake everything for
Babri Masjid, it was run solely on the inherent sentiment of Muslims to
safeguard Babri Masjid, despite what can be called as a cardinal-wrong step to
restrict itself only to the litigation side of Babri Masjid and withdraw it as
a public campaign. It may be noted that BMAC had only once asked from its
district committees to collect Rs 5000 each, so as to look into legal expenses,
and 22 districts responded. Abdul Mannan, its counsel of great repute, often
would ask Ali Miyan Nadwi, who helped and once would mobilise funds of Rs
25000, and as its result BMAC engaged RK Garg, to file the case on behalf of
Sunni Central Waqf Board in 1986. Garg was an eminent lawyer who was to charge
55000 but for Babri Masjid took a very concessional amount. MS Ganesh also
provided with his legal acumen without charging anything. The incredible help
and advises from Prof Irfan Habib, Prof Athar Ali, both from AMU, also helped
cement the Babri Masjid campaign to a great extent. After the demolition of
Babri Masjid, all the expenses have been borne by All India Muslim Personal Law
Board. Ali Mian was its chairman.
The role of
SS Ray deserves special mention, as after the opening of locks of Babri Masjid,
he was in Delhi and Governor Punjab, amid Punjab militancy, and met Abdul Manna
and Zafaryab Jilani, and offered his legal services to the Babri Masjid cause
at no fee. He asked to place him anywhere on his visits to Lucknow and stayed
in Clarks Avadh hotel, his sense of belonging for Babri Masjid kept him going
and he visited last in 2009 and did not even take travelling expenses too.
After the disastrous Sep 30, 2010 judgement, he wanted it be contested lock
stock barrel and Zafaryab Jilani went to Kolkata with the draft of appeal to
which he gave his valuable suggestions. Also worthy of him is to contend that
he had offered to resign from his ambassador rank in Washington, in the wake of
demolition of Babri Masjid to which Zayaryab Jilani had advised him otherwise
on phone. The commendable role played by
senior counsel Rajeev Dhawan, who was a Law Professor in England, and was
advised by CJI Venkatchaliah to come back to India, fought the Babri Masjid
case in Ismail Farooqui Vs Union of India (1994) case without charging
fee. Soli Sohrabjee was also to charge a
very concessional fee of Rs 7500 from BMAC and Kapil Sibal had got it conveyed
through Huzaifa Ahmadi to contest from Babri Masjid side without charging
anything. Huzaifa is from the family of former CJI AM Ahmadi.
The
presence of such luminaries, who arguably are institutions unto themselves,
with Hindu denominations, are million times better than those hordes of Muslims
who were advising BMAC not to challenge the Sep 30, 2010 order and have
campaigned for Ram Temple since then. I am not a religious authority but can
vouch that such people have usurped the cause of Prophet Muhammed and have
betrayed the basic tenets of Islam and are always to be condemned by it. It may
also be specifically pointed out that Congress PM Rajiv Gandhi who is credited
to have got organised Shilanyas (foundation laying ceremony) for Ram Temple,
apart from getting the locks of Babri Masjid opened up, for which Congress
tally came down to 197 after losing 217 seats in 1989 parliament, had
afterthoughts by 1990, and had got it conveyed through SS Ray that he wanted to
meet BMAC.
BMAC made
it clear that unless Home Minister Buta Singh would be there the meeting would
be fruitless and Rajiv Gandhi acceded. During the meeting Rajiv Gandhi
expressed displeasure that he was grossly misled by his cousin (Arun Nehru on
Ayodhya issue) and called Fotedar to bring in his letter. He read it and got
inserted the word ‘living’ before Ram Temple that whether it was demolished to
bring up Babri Masjid on it, and which was to be founded by five sitting SC
judges. The bench was to be constituted based on a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh,
Christian and Parsi judges. He would say to Zafaryab Jilani that both of them
knew that the finding won’t get against Muslims and all he wanted was BMAC not
oppose his letter which he intended to leak to press. BMAC approved. The bench
could not be constituted as the then CJI Ranganath Misra could not spare five
SC judges for the bench.
Ironically,
it is now a five judges bench hearing the final of this case, but under the
extreme communal cauldron around in the country, where Muslims are being
lynched on streets for not uttering Jai Shri Ram, their beards snatched, their
women veils burnt and Hindu mobs raiding Muslim inhabitations with open threats
to go to Pakistan (under state patronage), perhaps, despite the worst of the
riots in India, never such a hard time has befallen on Muslims, yet Muslims are
with their die-hard trust in the judiciary of the nation which is the only hope
despite hoping against hope.
The words
of CJI Rajan Gogoi are no doubt incredibly assuring when he in his recently
written piece in The Indian Express contended that the need of the hour is for
judiciary to stand to the populist regimes
(https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/cji-ranjan-gogoi-need-to-equip-judiciary-to-deal-with-forces-of-populism-5789192/). CJI is to retire on November 7.
Hindutva
forces want Muslims to be revenged upon for what the Muslim rule did over India
for centuries and want to extract with vengeance the partition of India which
is reality was only the partition of Muslim majority states i.e. Punjab and
Bengal, then why Muslims spread across whole of India are getting smoked out in
chambers which were invisible yesterday (since 1947) and have now only become
visible and over board.
Haider Abbas has written extensively on
Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid issue, is a lawyer, journalist and former UP State
Information Commissioner.
Source: The Countercurrent
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-politics/haider-abbas/heartening-that-some-hindus-are-supporting-muslim-case-on-babri-masjid/d/119419