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Hindu High Priest Promises Babri Solution in Three Months
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| Frenzied
Hindu mobs demolished the Babri mosque in 1992.
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By
IOL
South Asia
Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, June 27 (IslamOnline) - The Shankaracharya of Kanchi Peeth,
Swami Jayendra Saraswati, one of the four most revered high priests of
Hinduism in India, is active again to solve the tangled Babri
Moque-Ram Temple issue. Last March, he tried in vain to mediate
between the Muslim and Hindu sides.
Swami
Saraswati is meeting various groups, apparently in tandem with the
government. This time he is trying to bypass the Muslim leadership.
His new refrain is that the issue is "local" and therefore
there should be a local solution, meaning that a settlement with the
Muslims of Ayodhya town will be sufficient to solve this question
which has plagued
India
for over a decade. He declared Wednesday, June 26, that an amicable
solution to the Babri Masjid would be found in three months.
The
high priest, in the capital primarily to see the visiting king of
Nepal
, the only existing Hindu kingdom, said there were secret negotiations
with “Muslim leaders” to resolve the half-century old conflict.
The identity of the Muslim leaders the Shankaracharya referred to was
not disclosed and could not be ascertained by IOL here.
Bits
of information pieced together show that the Shankaracharya had been
talking to some local Muslims at Ayodhya in north
India
where the historic Babri Masjid has stood for more than four centuries
as a fine specimen of Saracene architecture, part of the cherished
World Heritage.
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| Hindu
pontiff, Shankaracharya of Kanchi
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Frenzied
Hindu mobs, led by Hindu fundamentalist leaders (a number of whom are
ministers at the Center now) demolished the mosque amid worldwide
condemnation on
December 6, 1992
. Hundreds of journalists from
India
and foreign media covered the incident and were beaten up by the
hoodlums for doing so.
The
mosque was destroyed as the Center watched passively and the state
government of Uttar Pradesh colluded with the vandals. The mobs then
destroyed 28 mosques, Sufi shrines and Muslim graveyards in the town,
setting hundreds of Muslim homes on fire and killing each Muslim man,
woman or child in the town who had not been able to flee in time.
Police and security forces watched the arson and butchery, refusing to
act.
The
anti-Muslim hysteria spread all over the country and several thousand
Muslim lives were lost and property worth billions of rupees wantonly
destroyed.
A
make-shift temple to the mythological Hindu god-king Rama was built
within hours at the debris of the mosque. The heroes (or villains) of
this savagery won 92 seats in Parliament in the elections that
followed, increasing their numbers from only two just a few years ago.
The event showed that religious intolerance had substantially grown in
the country and that the middle class had developed a fascination for
fascism.
Although
the Kanchi Shankaracharya is regarded by Indian Muslims as a
well-meaning person of gentle disposition, the Muslim leadership is
wary of the mosque-breakers taking advantage of the respected
priest’s goodwill to legitimize their act of vandalism.
To
its credit, the Indian judiciary has consistently resisted hooliganism
and disallowed any construction not only on the mosque site but also
on adjoining land once belonging to Sunni Waqf.
The
apex Indian Muslim organization, All India Muslim Personal Law Board
(AIMPLB), has declared that any solution bypassing it would not be
acceptable. AIMPLB’s Babri Masjid Committee too has reiterated the
stand.
Muslims
fear that the mosque-breakers would try to forestall AIMPLB and the
judiciary by using some quislings in the community to legitimize their
lawless act.
The
courts are yet to decide the mosque’s title suit and other cases as
Justice Liberahan Commission of Enquiry is trying to ascertain the
culpability of individual leaders in the December 6 savagery.
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