Articles
Liberahan, Babri structure and Ram Mandir
Dt: 1/12/09
Liberahan, Babri structure and Ram Mandir
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
The Liberhan Commission will go down as the most infamous in the history of Commissions whether of the states or the union government in this country. Tasked in Dec 1992 to submit its report within 150 days the Justice took 48 extensions stretching over a period of 17 years, incurring expenditure about Rs. 80 mln. It produced a report of about 1000 pages which revealed nothing not spoken of and some times, believed by the people of India. Js. Shah Commission which went into the excesses of the Emergency declared by Smt.Indira Gandhi in 1975 submitted its report within the stipulated 18 months. It brought out evidence -based facts and recommended specific actions and passed strictures against many of the guilty as for example Sri Navin Chawla (who is currently the Chief Election Commissioner at the Center). The Shah report categorically held that Chawla was unfit for any government job, requiring rectitude and integrity and obedience to laws of the land. The Liberahan Commission did not examine Sri Atal Behari Vajpayee and yet held him to be complicit in the pulling down of the Babri structure. It did not hear the then Governor of UP, Sri Satyanrayana Reddy who was witnessed (though from long distnacea) to the happenings at the Babri structure on the 6th of Dec 1992. It did not examine Sri PVRK Prasad (IAS Retd.), the Special Officer on duty with the then Prime Minister Sri P V Narasimha Rao and who was specially tasked to co-ordinate efforts to resolve the Babri structure issue. With such serious flaws and such long delays stretching over the Prime Ministership of five persons and many Home Ministers, the Commissions report has put none any
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* Chairman : Pragna Bharati, Andhra Pradesh
Director : Center for Telecom Management & Studies
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the wiser. Its observation that with responsible Muslim leadership could not wise steps for preventing the pulling down of the Babri structure, despite definite indications preparatory to it for quite some time seems to be an incitement for Direct Action of the type on 16 Aug 1946 called by the Muslim League to enforce the partition of India and creation of the Islamic state of Pakistan. The Liberation Commission in its 17 -year so labours did not go into the history of how the Babri structure came into existence or the Babri structure was erected for its or the records kept by the scribes accompanying and following the Islamist invaders like Md. of Ghazni and rulers like Aurangazeb describing the desecration and destruction of mandirs and conversion of many ( about 3000) into masjids on the very places .
3. This Report coming after 17 years will only reinforce to resolve of the parties involved to persist in their agendas . Is this to be expected of a learned judge? How greatly does it contrast with the Allahabad High Court sitting on the report of professional archaeologists it commissioned to investigate whether any temple structures lie under the Ramajanmabhoomi in Ayodhya. The contents of that report will surely reignite the passions and the various repeated struggles by Hindus for its repossession, resolves of the parties involved. That could be the reason why the Allahabad High Court is sitting on the report of the archaeologists who used depenetration radar and such modern equipment to investigate what lies under the floor of the Babri structure.( It appears that the radar pictures show remnants of temple structures)
4. The great furore in the Parliament about the leak of this report (before it was forced to be placed before the Parliament) was uncalled for. Hundreds of reports have been leaking, some deliberately and some by the efforts of investigative journals and news papers. If this report is of very serious and important nature, then responsibility for the leakage ought to be fixed. Decades ago, when Sri Lal Bahadur Sastry was Minister for Railways a train crashed into the river as a bridge over it near Ariyalur in Tamilnadu collapsed. The noble Lalbahadur Sastry resigned despite Nehru's advice and instruction. Sastriji owned up moral responsibility for the train disaster. Of course we have come a long way since then; now criminals themselves are becoming ministers even they are, charge sheeted and investigated and yet they are sticking to their ministership under a newly evolved “coalition dharma by the UPA”.
5. It is no wonder that three stalwarts namely Atal Behari Vajpayee, Sri L.K. Advani and Sri Murali Manohar Joshi have been held responsible for planning the “destruction” of the Babri structure. By expectedly and rightly Sri Advanji has said, like others, that he is proud to be advocating and working for the reconstruction and restoration of a grand mandir for Rama at his Janmasthan. Each and every karsevak who was there at the Babri site at that time publicly asserts his pride at seeing the pulling down of the Babri structure and the construction of Ram's temple, though so small, at the Janmasthan. What they wish for and what every true Bharatiya looks for is the construction of a grand temple for the Maryada Purusha, the dharma vigraha, Sri Rama at his janmasthan.
6. It will be appropriate to recall what happen to the Somanath temple in Prabhas Pattan near Dwaraka in Saurastra region of Gujarat. Somanath was revered and held dear and sacred by hundreds of millions of people for ages and for that very reason, Sultan Muhammed of Ghazni invaded and pulled down Somanatha temple; broke the Siva Lingam into pieces, took some of them for use as steps leading to a mosque so that the faithfuls will tread on them. The last destruction was on Aurangazeb's order when not only was the linga pulled down but the garbhagudi itself was converted into a mosque. Soon after India gained independence and the Nawab of Junagadh in whose state Prabhasa was flood to Pakistan. A Government of India at the instance of Sardar Patel, N.V.Gadgil and Sri K.M. Munshi all Ministers in the Nehru cabinet decided to remove the mosque to a different place and reconstruct the Somanatha temple with funds from the public, as per advice of Mahatma Gandhi. It was consecrated by the President of India in may 1951 with funds from the public, as per advice of Mahatma Gandhi. There was not a word of protest from any quarter then. It would therefore be interesting to understand as to why the restoration of Ram's temple at the Janmabhoomi is being obstructed so stubbornly now and why the governments are dragging their feet. Babur was an invader. The structure that was fashioned as a mosque by Babur's general, Mir Baqui in the year 1528 A.D was not needed there at the time as there were hardly any Muslims in Ayodhya then and even later. Even now it is in the near -by town, Faizabad that there are Muslims. The Babri structure was a standing memorial to the victory of a Muslim invader from a foreign country and to the defeat and the helplessness and impotence of Hindus then and later. No self-respecting people can suffer memorials for invaders. Suppose the British had put up in Amritsar, a statue of Gen. Dwyer at whose orders scores of unarmed Indians gathered in Jelianwalabagh were gunned down to death. Would independent India have allowed that statue to stand ? There are many more reasons as to why that Babri structure which ceased to be a mosque about six decades ago would be pulled down and for the Ram temple to come up at the place where for thousands of years Hindus belief Rama was born. The faith and believe of Hindus are no less sacrosanct than that of any other people.
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