Hindu fundamentalism appears to have become the Indian prime minister’s craze. P.V.Narasimha Rao’ssocalled Ayodhya package has the support, more or less, of Hindus alone. Almost everyone else has strongly opposed and condemned the proposals on Ayodhya.

The main proposals formulated by the Indian cabinet recently was acquisition of 67 acres of land in and around the Babn masjid area through a presidential ordinance issued on Jan.8. The proposals also involves reference to the Indian supreme court the question whether a Hindu shrine existed at the site of the Babn masjid some 450 years ago. The supreme court’s finding will be advisory in nature. The proposals also include setting up of two trusts to build a masjid and a mandir at Ayodhya.

Most Muslim organizations feel that the land acquisition idea of the Indian government is nothing but a reformed edition of the outgoing BJ.P. Government’s action which also had taken over the land in question. However, later the Allahbad high court had struck down the acquisition as illegal. Muslims fear the Rao government is following in the footsteps of the BJP.

Package gets thumbs down There are just no takers for Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s Ayodhya package. It has evoked opposition from his new friends and foes alike. If a partial welcome has come, it is from the Bharatiya Janata Party which is his principal enemy today. Prime Minister Rao finds himself in a position worse than V.P.Singh’sa little over two years ago when he had to withdraw his Ayodhya ordinance within 24 hours of its issue. Rao’s ordinance which had an insulation of period of 12 days has been condemned by most political groups and concerned religious organizations.

That the Congress has welcomed the package is neither surprising nor likely to make any difference to the situation. If the Bharatiya Janata Party has found anything acceptable in the ordinance, it is the proposal to acquire the land in and around the disputed structure. Its own government in Uttar Pradesh had taken it over. As for other provisions, in chiding those concerning reference to the Supreme Court and constitution of trusts, all are worked up, even though for contradictory reasons.

The National Front Left Front axis which backed Rao up to a point in his battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the early Stages has rejected not only the acquisition idea but the trust proposal and the decision to seek the Supreme Court’s opinion. What, according to them, should have been sought from the Supreme Court is not opinion but a pronouncement binding on all concerned. The BJP does not even feel there is need for any such reference.

The BJP vice president, Sunder Singh Bhandan, in a hardhitting Statement issued here has said that the Government’s whole approach on the Ayodhya issue is “partisan, petty and perverse” which will not be accepted by the county. All the “delays and deceits in negotiations,” it would appear, had only one objective: that none but the Congress alone should get credit for building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Bhandari termed the Government’s idea of building a mosque in Ramkot area as a plan for ‘mischief and ask for trouble.”

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There is no Muslim habitation in Ramkot area and their graveyard also stands beyond Mani Parbat on the outskirts of Ayodhya.

Babri Movement demands Muslims resign

The Babn Masjid Movement Coordination Committee demanded the resignation of all Muslim and likeminded ministers “from the Rao Govt. and decided to challenge the constitutionality of the land acquisition ordinance, issued by the President on Thursday night, in the appropriate court.”

An emergency meeting of the BMMCC termed the acquisition of certain areas in Ayodhya under the ordinance “totally unacceptable” to the Muslim community.

It said the reference to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of this important issue had no legal consequence.

The meeting, presided over by Syed Shahabuddin, said the ordinance had been so designed as to “pave the way for the grant of the Babri Masjid site for the construction of the proposed Ram temple.”

The BMMCC cautioned the Govt against going ahead with such “an arbitrary executive order” under pressure from chauvinistic forces.

Demanding the resignation of Muslim and some other ministers, the BMMCC said they had failed to persuade the Government to heed to “the voice of reason and fairness.

It appealed to secular parties and the secular elements in the Congress Lo exert all possible pressure on the Government to repeal the ordinance and refer all pending cases of the Ram Janmabhoomi Babni Masjid dispute to the Supreme Court for urgent adjudication.

Decrying the ordinance, the BMMCC said it had shown the Rao Government’s “utter insensitivity” to the lawful aspirations of the people.

The Government had adopted the legislative path shown by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for the implementation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s plan to construct the temple at the disputed site, it alleged.

The BMMCC said the ordinance “left the Muslim community helpless in the face of the tragic and unprecedented act of vandalism perpetrated by the RSSVHPBJP combine of religion guaranteed in the Constitution.”

The BMMCC charged the Rao Govt with interfering in the constitutional and religious rights of the Muslim community and added that its intentions were “politically motivated and mala fide and in violation of the rule of law.”

Besides Syed Shahabuddin, others who attended the meeting were Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait, Maulana Shafi Moonis, Syed Yusuf, Maulana A Qasmi and Prof Saifuddin Soz.

The Naib Imam of Jama Masjid, Ahmed Bukhari, on Friday said the ordinance acquiring land in and around the disputed structure in Ayodhya was unacceptable to Muslims as it would help the BJPVHP plan to build a temple.

“The ordinance was only a facade which will enable the BJP and VHP in constructing a temple at the Ayodhya site and any Muslim accepting it would be termed a traitor,” the Imam said after the Friday prayers at Jama Masjid in Delhi.

Reiterating the resolve to rebuild the mosque at the same site, he said any Muslim who becomes a member of any trust provided under the ordinance would be declared a traitor and outcast.

He attacked the Union Government and alleged that the Prime Minister had connived with the BJPVHP combine in the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the violence that followed.

The Imam said the land acquired under the Presidential ordinance includes a grave yard and “we will never allow a masjid to be built.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 15, 1993