Babri Masjid Destruction – Talking Points

  1. Lord Ram is a mythological figure with no historical evidence of his actual existence.
  2. The birthplace of Ram is being claimed by dozens of stakeholders across North India. These days the PM of Nepal is campaigning that Ram was born in Nepal, not India.
  3. That Ram was born in Ayodhya at the exact place where Babri Mosque existed is again purely conjectural. Likewise, there is no historical evidence that a temple of Ram existed under the Babri Mosque. This conjectural premise was turned into a belief by Hindu nationalists to polarize the masses and gain votes of the majority Hindu community. Even today, numerous other temples exist in Ayodhya where priests claim that their temple was the precise place where Ram was born.
  4. The Babri Mosque was demolished by Hindu nationalist militias as part of a political campaign by the BJP party, where the leader of the party Advani led a rally (Yatra) to demolish the mosque.
  5. Hindu nationalist leaders explicitly claimed that they will not abide by any court judgment unless it favors them.
  6. The Supreme Court judgment favoring the handover of the Babri Masjid land is a mockery of the judicial system. The court acknowledged that the mosque was demolished in violation of the law and that there is no evidence that the mosque was built on top of a demolished temple, but nonetheless handed over the land to Hindus to build a temple in keeping with “Hindu religious beliefs and sentiments.” The irony is that one of the defendants in the suit who won the case is a deity called Ram Lalla (baby Ram).
  7. Corruption and duress in the judicial system has left its credibility in tatters: Following the death of Justice Loya, whose family claimed he was murdered by the ruling administration for not budging on the Sohrabuddin murder case involving Home Minister Amit Shah, the judiciary feels threatened and under duress to go against the wishes of the ruling administration. The administration is alleged to further exploit judges through corruption. For example, one of the senior Supreme Court judges, Gogoi, who presided over the Babri masjid case has now been given a plush position in the administration after his retirement.
  8. The violence and targeted killings by the police following the demolition of Babri mosque resulted in the killings of thousands of people, mostly Muslims, and is one of the most gruesome periods in Indian history.