Ayodhya verdict is like a panchayati judgment OUR PRESENT LEGAL SYSTEM RESTS ON principles of togetherness based on promising (i.e., contracts and trusts),good conduct (crime and tort),good governance (our constitutional system),respect for property and the rule of law.This is the dharmaof law.Let this system collapse,and there will be chaos. The law recognises and implements claims of faith.Temples and mosques are trusts founded on property rights.They own property.In India,the secular rule of law requires mutual respect between religions and beliefs without exciting faith into frenzy,as with the renewed and nasty Ayodhya campaign. The Babri Masjid controversy did not pose a conflict between faith and law.Both require respecting Muslim beliefs,their property rights and ensuring their mosques are not pulled down.If the structure was pulled down on December 6,1992,the judgment of 2010 pulled down the structure of law protecting it by changing the rules for religious protection,Play the game according to the rules;but if you lose,change the rules. The Lucknow judgment in the Babri Masjid disbalanced the entire basis of mutual respect between faiths in favour of the Hindus. The Muslims were not claiming a site,but a site on which a masjid stood.A mosque represents their belief that what is sacral will be recognised,not destroyed into rubble and delegitimated by the law! The courts judgment robbed Muslims of their entitlement to a site and a mosque on no flimsy legal grounds.The case in their favour was open and shut like that of the Shahid Gunj Mosque case (1940).Now they have been thrown out of their site which is to be shared with the Nirmohi Akhara and the Hindus. It was one thing to respect Hindu sentiment,it was quite another to pulverise the Muslim faith into legal nothingness.The Hindus have a right to pray,but they lost the right to do so on this site over time. The Sangh Parivar tried to browbeat the Muslims to accede to Hindu majoritarianism through violence,mosque destruction and intimidation.Muslims believed that the law will protect them.The law has failed the Muslims.Actual destruction is followed by legal destruction. To recognise the Hindu right to prayer,it was pointless to conjure the image of an invading Babur destroying a living temple to make the site haram.Justice Khan did not believe a live temple was destroyed in 1526.The Hindu case of the birth place of Ram was based on conjecture,questionable doctrine and Imperial Gazetteer versions of local hearsay.The Muslims want to believe in the Hindu right to prayer on the basis of co-existence founded on truth and dignity.The judgment robs them of both.They are left with nothing to negotiate not even the right to pursue their faith with dignity.Without apology and respect,the Hindus have triumphed,killing truth,history,archaeology,law and more. That is why the judgment is a panchayati judgment.A title suit was converted into a partition suit.The partition is whimsical. Judges,ill-equipped to decide history and archaeology,have made a mess of the past to settle the future arbitrarily. It is written,One should not give up ones birth right for a mess of potage. The Lucknow judgment is a mess of potage.
AN EXTREMELY WORRISOME AND HIGHLY controversial principle has been asserted by the Allahabad High Court while deciding the Ayodhya title suits.The judges asserted that matters of faith and belief have an absolute veto power over the fact and legality of the ownership of mosque or temple under the dispute. An analysis of the judgment requires reference to Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution on the Right to Freedom of Religion,the right to manage religious affairs and relevant judicial verdicts,for example,cited by P M Bakshi in his The Constitution of India (2005). According to Bakshi,law can regulate but not take away the right to administer a religious endowment.The property of a religious endowment can be acquired by the state as well,but the core of the religious institution should not be interfered with. The Allahabad High Court,which has taken upon itself to divide the disputed site among litigants representing both Muslim and Hindu communities,would appear to have ignored the principle that right of religious institutions cannot be interfered with. The honourble judges seem to ignore that in our country,the distinction between matters of faith and completely irrational superstitions just does not exist.Myths and epic imaginations such as Thulsidas Ramcharitmanas and Valmikis Ramayana are not considered as just popular history mixed with fiction they are converted into religious faith and superstition by the priestly classes for their own benefits. Politicians along with priests have become protagonists of religious faith.The politics of faith was seen in its naked form when a mob collected by the Sangh Parivar and led by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders such as L K Advani,Murli Manohar Joshi et aldestroyed the mosque in Ayodhya on the plea that Ram temple was destroyed to build the mosque. The judgment has legitimised vandalism in Ayodhya because this is the language of Mr Advani who maintained that matters of faith cannot be decided by the law courts.If faith and superstition are the basis of jurisprudence,it will be extremely difficult to prevent a segment of society claiming rights over places of worship.Instead of the rule of law,the country will be practicising the law of the jungle in the guise of faith of the believers. In a country of million deities and little religious traditions,individual groups have been given a handle and a licence to take the law in their hand and occupy any religious place of worship and claim that it is a place of birth of their deity and courts will be duty-bound to put a stamp of approval to such anarchy.The Allahabad High Court has pronounced a dangerous judgment where a deity has pre-eminent claim over law.Events of December 21/23 night of 1949 when idols of Ram were fraudulently put in the mosque would be repeated by politically-led groups and courts will justify it as a matter of faith. The Supreme Court should immediately take note of a judgement that is based on extremely dangerous principles,otherwise a plural,democratic and culturally-diverse society will be involved in politically-created religious wars,and this fire will become unextinguishable.Politics has superseded history and faith has supplanted the rule of law,and in this lies the real message of the Allahabad High Court.
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