By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, December 1 (IslamOnline)-The Babri Masjid demolition case took
a new turn Friday, November 29 as the Supreme Court of India ordered
that deputy prime minister LK Advani, federal human resource minister
Murli Manohar Joshi and sorts minister Uma Bharti be tried with their
Hindu nationalist colleagues at a special court in Rae Bareli, a
district town in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on charge of
demolishing the historic mosque.
These
people were to be tried at a special court in Lucknow, the state
capital. On December 6, 1992 a hysteric mob of Hindu fanatics
demolished the mosque as the Hindu nationalist leaders, including the
three above-mentioned who are top government leaders now, watched in
jubilation.
Advani,
with his fiery anti-Muslim speeches, and Bharti’ s harangues
demonising Muslims all over the country, were instrumental in
mobilising these fanatics to commit the crime.
Bharti
and Advani, along with others, were seen and heard inciting the
hysteric mob. Even Advani’ s estranged daughter-in-law deposed
before the Liberahan Commission investigating the crime that he had
been planning the demolition in his New Delhi home for many months.
Many
Muslims in Ayodhya town of Uttar Pradesh was killed and hundreds of
Muslim homes were demolished. As many as 28 mosques and Muslim
mosaulea were destroyed that day by the mob. Advani’ s party, BJP,
gained electorally from the anti-Muslim mobilisation.
The
new development in the case has destroyed almost a decade of legal
work and the proceedings would have to be started afresh. That means
men like Advani, Joshi, Dalmia and Singhal, who are already in their
70s, would not be punished at all, because the case would drag
endlessly for years and decades as is the case with the lethargic
Indian legal system.
On
February 12 last year, the Allahabad high court had dropped charges
against the accused on a small technical ground. The court said there
were defects in the government’ s notification constituting a
special court for the purpose. The court had, however, said that the
case could be relaunched after the technical defects were removed.
As
the state government at the time was being run by the same BJP whose
leaders were accused of the crime, the government refused to issue a
fresh notification. The case remained in suspended animation till a
new government was elected to power. However, because this government
too was allied with BJP, it also refused to issue fresh notices till
the time for doing so expired last September.
The
new order of the Supreme Court cuts both ways. On one hand it revives
the case and the hope for the trial of the Hindu nationalist leaders
responsible for the grievous crime. On the other, it gives them enough
latitude to virtually ensure that many of them would die after living
a long life without their spending a single day in jail.
The
Supreme Court order requires the trial process to begin again-from the
filing of a fresh chargesheet to the recording of evidence. That means
a decades’ s legal work has come to naught. In the meanwhile, the
state government has reasons to feel reassured because now it is no
longer expected to issue a fresh notification. That spares it the
trouble of alienating BJP.
 |
| Babri Mosque
during demolition |
Muslim
leaders have shown concern over the drift of events. One of the top
Muslim leaders of India, Syed Shahabuddin, has said the order has
rendered a decade’ s work irrelevant. When the attorneys of Muslims
requested the Supreme Court to ensure expeditious trial of the case
they were told by the judges to move the high court as it was the
proper forum for making such request in case of delay in the
proceedings.
Syed
Shahabuddin, convener of the Babri Masjid Movement Coordination
Committee (BMMCC) said in a statement, Saturday, November 30, “ The
Babri Masjid Movement Coordination Committee (MMMCC) expresses its
deep regret that the Supreme Court judgment of 29 November, 2002 in
effect protects the senior leaders of the Sangh Parivar [RSS family]
including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal, VH Dalmia,
Acharya Giriraj Kishore, Uma Bharti, Shri Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi
Rithambra from the clutches of the law as the order neither protects
the proceedings of the case in Lucknow nor instructs the Special
Court, Rae Bareli, to act with due dispatch.
The
Case under FIR No. 198/92 had made considerable progress, despite the
road blocks created by the accused and their sympathetic governments,
they stood indicted by the CBI Court, Lucknow, and the issues had been
framed and subsequently upheld by the High Court, said BMMCC
statement.
The
technical defect pointed out by the High Court and the notification
could have been remedied but instead of ordering the State Government
to revise the notification, the Supreme Court judgment virtually
throws down the drain the fruits of judicial process over 10 years of
legal labour as it has directed the case to be tried de nova by
a Special Court of a lower level at Rae Bareli. This set-back shall
not only throw back the case to square one but makes it much more
difficult to array the evidence afresh, BMMCC statement added.
The
BMMCC is of the view that the imperative of justice are not served by
the order of the Supreme Court.
It
is obvious that the case has been caught up in legal wrangles, and it
would not be easy for Muslims to get justice for years to come. This
possibly could be a classic example of “ Justice delayed is justice
denied,” said BMMCC statement.
