Sambhal: Stage Set for Babri Masjid 2.0

Mohammad Shafi National Vice President

Keeping the Hon’ble Supreme Court an effigy the Adithyanath government is on to replicate the Babri Masjid in Sambhal. The apex court has issued an order to stop any activity at Sambhal Shahi Masjid, where the police shot dead 6 Muslim youths last month. Besides, the actions to take over the Masjid defying the court order, Adithyanath has got the Archaeological Survey of India deployed at two spots close to the Jama Masjid in Sambhal, tasked to dig up proof of the existence of old buildings of (Hindu) religious significance, this too in violation of the apex court direction.

The chronology of the operation unsurprisingly matches the Babri Masjid demolition plan. The initial step in the Babri Masjid demolition operation was to build ‘Ram Janmabhoomi police chowki’ (outpost) in the late 1940s. Following the first step of digging out and ‘discovering’ remnants of a temple and idols, the democratically elected secular government and its machinery hastily conducted a ‘bhoomi pooja’ to start building a police outpost in front of the Masjid encroaching on the private and Waqf Board land which the district administration claim to be government land, despite the valid documents owned by the land owners and the Masjid committee. In the evening of the ‘bhoomi pooja’ by the police, women ‘devotees’ performed the Navgrah Puja at the site. In short, the stage is well set for another Babri Masjid in Sambhal.

Mohan Bhagwat who, the other days, has repeatedly expressed disagreement about the claims and encroachment on the places of worship and lands of other religious faiths, should come forward to ask Yogi to follow his words and stop these activities immediately if he is sincere in his disagreement.