Accept the judgment focus on future

Accept the judgment focus on future

The offer for closure to a divisive phase.

All parties to the Ayodhya dispute should accept the unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court on the subject and allow the country to move on. Let a grand temple be built at the site and a grand mosque, too, in the place allotted for its construction in Ayodhya. It is welcome that the verdict has been met with relative calm and that no organization has made any attempt to vitiate the atmosphere. The court verdict makes it clear that any attempt to demolish any other place of worship would be wholly illegal. India needs to move beyond divisive politics of identity and focus on building the internal cohesion and economic strength needed to carve out and defend its own unique space in the world and in history.

The court has based its verdict on principles that are in accordance with the secular fundamentals of the Constitution. Archaeological and other evidence have been relied upon to settle the property dispute and, simultaneously, respect the sentiments of a majority of Hindus that Lord Ram was born at the site of the Babri mosque. True, the evidence in favour of a Hindu place of worship at the site is based on preponderant probability, rather than definitive. This is cause for some disquiet, but it is difficult to imagine how else it could be. But the court recognises demolition of the mosque in 1992 as a crime and closing off of the mosque for Muslim prayer since December 1949 as unjust. It is as recompense for this injustice that the court has directed the government to allot five acres of land in Ayodhya for building a mosque. This should preclude any notion that the verdict is endorsement of the illegal destructions of the mosque. It would be ideal if a mosque were to be built with the collective effort of all communities.

It is the duty of all concerned to not just maintain peace but also to work for sustainable unity and harmony among followers of different faiths. To that end, the focus must be on the future, rather than on the past. The campaign to build a temple at Ayodhya led to much division and violence. The point is to put this firmly behind us.