CHANDIGARH: “If Muslims want peace, they should gracefully return three temples Ram Janam Bhoomi, Lord Krishna Temple (Mathura) and Shiva Temple to the Hindus,” threatened D.V. Seghal, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court here.

Speaking at a seminar on “Shri Ram Janam Bhoomi” organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Justice Sehgal said perhaps India was the only country where a community which constituted more than 82 percent of the population had to tolerate interference in its religion.

The former Judge said he was hopeful that the case filed by certain Muslims contesting the claim of the Hindus on the Ram Janam Bhoomi Temple would be decided in favor of the Hindus, The case was time barred and the deity had not been impleded as a party, These were two insurmountable flaws in the case.

Therefore, there was no question of the case being decided against the Hindus.

In his speech, Justice Sehgal referred to what Mahatma Gandhi wrote in “Young India,” in 1924 that Hinduism “is a relentless Puresuit for truth and will burst forth upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before.” He said Mahatma Gandhi also wrote: “Deprive a Hindu of his temple, and you deprive him of the thing he generally prized most in life.” On worship of a deity a simple Hindu could not contemplate his Rama without looking at his image in a temple and he would not disturb his simple faith,

Answering a question by Dr, D.C. Saxena, a Professor in the English Department of Panjab University, why the Hindu should not wait for the verdict of the court, Justice Sehgal posed a counter question “Will Muslims abide by the verdict if it is averse to them?”

The former Judge said recent experiences had shown they would not. He quoted the Shah Bano case and the case of two Sunni graves. He said the disastrous result of the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case was that a Special legislation to govern a divorced Muslim woman had been enacted, Secular law contained in Section 125, Cr P.C. could not be applicable to Muslim women without the consent of their former husbands,

He said in doing so the Government distanced itself from one of the constitutional goals of securing for citizens a uniform civil code. He said Ram Janam Bhoomi was thus a national question.

Earlier, Mr. Onkar Bhushan Goswami, Convener, Kendriya Marg Darshak Mandal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad said any doubt about Rama being an incarnation of God and his birth as human being could not be entertained. According to Hindu belief, God takes human form from time to time to reform society,

He said the struggle of the Hindus to regain this temple started the day it was destroyed by Babar. It had been continuing for the past Over 400 years. He said more than 1,78,000 Hindus sacrificed their lives for resisting Muslims to grab the temple,

Goswami urged the government to give the site of the temple to Hindus. He said it would not injure the feelings of the Muslims as it was not a mosque, It would Certainly give religious satisfaction to Hindus as they would regain the Place where Lord Rama apeard on this earth.

Article extracted from this publication >>  September 15, 1989