IT is understandable that the fanatic Hindus, including successive chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, abhor everything named after the Mughals. That is why the present chief minister wants to rename the Mughal museum after Shiva.

However, one shudders to think how an idol was placed in the Babri Masjid on the night of December 22-23, 1949, just to create a controversy.

The Muslims filed a first information report (FIR) at the Ayodhya police station against Abhiram Das, Ram Sakal Das, Sudarshan Das and 50-60 unnamed persons. A conniving district and state administration took no action. And the Hindu vandals began worshipping at the mosque.

The appearance of the idol inside the mosque was portrayed as a divine intervention. To preclude administration from removing the surreptitiously-placed idol, a movement was started by fanatics, like Akhara, Podder and others. They were already engaged in a movement to restore places related to Hindu deities — Ayodhya (Rama), Mathura (Krishna) and Salasar (Hanuman).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) further flared up the issue. Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli declared that Ram was actually born in Thori village of Nepal. His claim is credible as Sita lived in Nepal, and was married to Ram ‘at age six’.

The Muslims in India may have felt whatever they felt at the judicial verdict on the issue, but the demolition of the mosque, killing of the Muslims and all those acts of vandalism have unmasked the true face of the so-called secular India.

S. Malik
Lahore

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2020