My dear Muslim friends,
Honour the Supreme Court’s verdict on Ayodhya. Let the Ram temple come up at the place where the Babri mosque stood till 1992 but don’t accept the five acres of land to build another mosque.
The highest court of the land has not made it mandatory upon you accept the offer of acquiring the plot. Refusing the ‘offer’ gracefully while honouring the verdict will not amount to perjury. Moreover, you had never asked for a plot in compensation.
Read, carefully, why I have suggested so.
Suppose after a few years or so, the “Jai Shri Ram brigade” declares that Raja Dasrath and Mata Kaushalya had organised “chhathiyar (a ceremony on the sixth day of the child’s birth)” for Ram Lalla (baby Ram) at that plot. Or claim that Ram Lalla had learnt archery on that plot. Or assert that Raja Dasrath had organised the reception for the wedding ceremony of Sita and Rama on that plot and they smuggle some idols to substantiate their claim.
Now, suppose you build a mosque on the plot given by the government. And then, the “Jai Shri Ram Brigade” fans out, claiming that the mosque has come up at the place where Ram Lalla mastered archery. Or they go out armed with “evidence”—furnished by the “ASI” and “historians” who are in dime and dozen in their ranks—to tell the people that parents of Ram Lalla had organised chhathiyar at the place where the mosque has come up.
Think of the identity I have mentioned for them—“Jai Shri Ram Brigade”. Don’t confuse it with the Maryada Purushottam Rama as established in saint poet, Tulsi Das’s Ram Charit Manas. Don’t draw a parallel of the “Jai Shri Ram brigade” with your archetypal co-villagers who respond to “Jai Ram ji ki bhai” to your salutation of “aadab arze”. Don’t find this “brigade” among the followers of Allama Iqbal’s Imam-e-Hind Ram. Many of you must be revering Iqbal’s concept of Imam-e-Hind Ram.
Now, suppose you build a mosque on the plot given by the government. And then, the “Jai Shri Ram Brigade” fans out, claiming that the mosque has come up at the place where Ram Lalla mastered archery. Or they go out armed with “evidence”—furnished by the “ASI” and “historians” who are in dime and dozen in their ranks—to tell the people that parents of Ram Lalla had organised chhathiyar at the place where the mosque has come up.
Let me confess that I am a man of little creative imagination. The “Jai Shri Ram Brigade” has countless cadres known for their “wonderful flight of imagination”. Moreover, they have many “historians” who have capability to dub even the acclaimed historians adhering to internationally accepted historical parameters and research methodology as “Marxist” or “anti-national”.
And make no mistake! The court will not justify their claims. You have seen how the court has declared desecration of Babri mosque in 1949 and its demolition in 1992 as unlawful. But even then you can’t be sure of retaining your mosque that would come up on the compensatory land.
Tulsi Das has written, “Samarath ke nahin dosh Gosain (The powerful don’t commit mistakes)”.
They can sway the gullible villagers with a simple question: “Had the chhathiyar party of Ram Lalla been organised or not?” This single question will be enough to confuse the innocent villagers who hardly know the theoretical construct of the “idea of India” discussed in the universities and Delhi elite’s drawing rooms.
My historian friend at Aligarh Mulsim University (AMU), Prof Mohmmand Sajjad has rightly suggested you not to accept the plot of land in his column:
It is a wise suggestion. Read it carefully. I will not ask you to be carried by MIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi. Take it from me. Asaduddin and members of the “Jai Shriram Brigade” belong to the same club—the club of players in power and politics. Mohammad Sajjad Bhai, all of you and I belong to an ordinary club of pen pushers, common people, teachers and journalists.
Prof Sajjad has apprehended that the five acre plot in compensation for the Babri mosque might be disputed. I have just enumerated above how the Jai Shriram Brigade could make it disputed again.
And make no mistake! The court will not justify their claims. You have seen how the court has declared desecration of Babri mosque in 1949 and its demolition in 1992 as unlawful. But even then you can’t be sure of retaining your mosque that would come up on the compensatory land.
Views expressed here, are author’s personal opinion.
