L. K. Advani the master-mind of the 1992 Babri Mosque destruction acquitted by Rae Barreli magistrate
Will Pakistan renew its demand for the extradition of L. K. Advani wanted under a 1948 warrant?
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - The dishonesty of India's leadership and its police and justice delivery systems have few parallels anywhere in the world when it comes to punishing communal offences and hate crimes. Remember the guilty of the November 1984 state-sponsored anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi (when over ten thousand innocent Sikh men, women and children were murdered) who are still strutting around scott free in India.A September 19 Rae Bareli court verdict in India reminds one of the presciently words of that great English statesman , Sir Winston Churchill, who said many years ago that, "handing over power to the Hindus would reduce India to the deepest depths of Oriental tyranny and despotism". The Rae Bareli Special Court Magistrate Vinay Kumar Singh's, verdict of exhonorating L. K. Advani of the Babri mosque episode is sheer despotism and tyranny and has proved Mr. Churchill's vision of what India would look like under the Hindus as correct.
It is outragious that the current Indian deputy Prime minister, L. K. Advani, who was the most important leader of the movement that organized the December 06, 1992 destruction of the Babri mosque - a place of worship - by a frenzied Hindu mob, (which event generated numerous communal riots all over the subcontinent in which thousands perished) has been let off the hook by a Rae Bareli trial magistrate a few days ago on the dubious basis of "benefit of the doubt".While Mridul Rakesh, the counsel for the accused, said the verdict would be challenged if needed, CBI Counsel R K Saini said it would examine the judgement before it decided to appeal against the discharge of Mr. L. K. Advani.
What began as a devious process of manipulation of the first information reports in the Babri mosque demolition case, and the totally illegitimate dropping of conspiracy charges against the principal accused, turned into a parody of justice on September 19, 2003, when the Special Court of Magistrate Vinay Kumar Singh, in Rae Bareli, (Uttar Pradesh state) framed charges against seven persons, including Pundit Murli Manohar Joshi of the cow-urine-drinking-fame, Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar and other Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders like Acharya Giriraj Kishore, Ashok Singhal, Sadhvi Rithambara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia. The magistrate discharged Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, the main accused, who played a direct, preponderant role in the events leading to December 6, 1992 destruction of a place of worship called the Babri mosque.
L. K. Advani, as every body in India knows, is the man who spearheaded, planned and ideologically inspired the raucous agitation which excited the Hindu mobs who razed the 500-years old Babri mosque on December 6, 1992. He along with others of that ilk revelled in the destruction, and hugged one another in exultation and mutual congratulation. The BJP, as every one knows, rode to political power at the Centre on the anti-Babri Masjid movement. Thus, the perpetrator of one of the worst hate crimes in India's history - who pulled down a place of worship - will not even stand trial for destroying a mosque and exploiting communal hatred, which he so clearly did. It was the BJP under L. K. Advani, which had earlier taken over the agitation in the late 1980s, and conducted the infamous Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra - a ceremonial march/procession a phenomonon peculiar to India.
Precisely what charges are framed against the remaining seven will be only known on October 10, 2003. The list of offences filed by the CBI under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is not long: Section 147 (rioting), 149 (committing a crime), 153A and 153B (spreading communal hatred) and 505 (creating ill will). But it is clear that the indictment will not include the all-important charge of criminal conspiracy, nor offences under Sections 295 and 295A of the IPC (defiling places of worship and indulging in acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class).
The ostensible reason made public by the magistrate to let Advani off the hook was the curious argument that the CBI cited two conflicting testimonies, one of which claimed that Advani tried to calm down the restive crowd while the other said he did nothing to restrain leaders like Uma Bharati and Sadhvi Ritambhara, with whom he shared the dais who made extremely inflammatory speeches. It is obvious that the Magistrate acted dishonestly and brazenly in exonerating L. K. Advani and that a conspiracy is brewing.
Over the years independent investigations have turned up overwhelming evidence of L. K. Advani's pivotal role in the processes and events that led to the demolition, including the happenings of December 6. The Citizens' Tribunal on Ayodhya, comprising Justices O. Chinappa Reddy, D.A. Desai and D.S. Tewatia documented Advani's role at length in its Report of the Inquiry Commission (July 1993) and in the Judgement and Recommendations (December 1993), both published by the Tribunal (K-14 Green Park Extension, New Delhi 110016).
These show that Advani was central to the build-up to the events of December 1992 - from numerous kar sevas, the 1990 Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra, and manipulation of the UP State government (then under the BJP's Kalyan Singh), to misleading the courts, and organising crucial coordination meetings of the Sangh combine. The intention to raze the mosque was repeatedly and unambiguously stressed during these events.
The very purpose of the Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra was to kindle "Hindu pride" and "get even" with history - of "conquest and humiliation" of the Hindus by "foreigners". The main slogans of the yatra were provocative: "there are only two places for Muslims - Pakistan or kabristan (graveyard)". The Inquiry Commission recorded detailed testimony of eyewitnesses to show that plans for December 6 destruction of the Babri mosque were launched by the BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal with a lalkar saptah starting November 29, 1992. By December 2, 1992, ninty thousand Hindu kar sevaks had gathered at Ayodhya. By December 3, 1992, they numbered 150,000. On December 5, 1992, Advani addressed a public meeting in Lucknow and was to go to Varanasi, reaching Ayodhya/Faizabad on December 5. He, however, altered his plans so as to reach Faizabad to join an all-important closed-door meeting at Vinay Katiyar's house, where the ultimate, detailed, nuts-and-bolts plans for December 6, 1992, were finalised.
Among those present were the RSS' H.V. Seshadri and K.S. Sudershan, the VHP's Ashok Singhal, Vinay Katiyar and Acharya Dharmendra, the Shiv Sena's Moreshwar Save, and the BJP's Pramod Mahajan. Meanwhile, a rehearsal of the demolition operation took place the same day near the Babri mosque. According to the Commission, on December 6, 1992, Advani arrived at the site at the same time as Murli Manohar Joshi (10-30 a.m.). Advani, among others, addressed the kar sevaks. His speech was intemperate. Meanwhile, some kar sevaks had breached the security cordon and were in a highly excited state. At 11-30 a.m., Uma Bharati made a highly inflammatory speech, including slogans "tel lagao Dabar ka, naam mitao Babar ka", "Katue kate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge", and so on.
At 11-45 AM, Advani reportedly announced, "We don't need bulldozers to pull down the mosque; [we can do it manually by removing chunks of its wall]". The assault on the mosque began. Advani then ensured that the demolition would continue and be completed without the intervention of Central paramilitary forces stationed nearby. At 3-15 p.m., he urged kar sevaks "to block all entry points to Ayodhya to prevent Central forces from entering, and warned the armed forces not to touch the kar sevaks." The eight accused were present at the site for a full seven hours and made no gesture to distance themselves from the destructive and illegal actions of the day. The December 6, 1992, events were videographed and photographed by numerous journalists, by Indian and foreign TV channels and, above all, by the Intelligence Bureau, which reportedly has nine hours of tapes. Curiously, the CBI did not present all of these tapes to the Rae Barreili special court. Obviously an Indian 'Potemkin village' is being built!
Wheeler-dealer Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has let the cat out of the bag, about the Rae Barelli court order. He has decided, according to press reports, not to appeal against it, on the grounds that, "I am a firm believer in the judiciary and of the view that the court verdict on Ayodhya should be acceptable to all ... I welcome the court's decision and have nothing more to say ... " This strengthens the suspicions of a secret collusive deal between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party under which Mulayam Singh Yadav has decided to accept the BJP's Kesarinath Tripathi as Speaker of the State assembly and has promised not to poach on the party's MLAs. This makes the whole matter all the more sordid. It sets back hopes of a just trial and further shakes the public's confidence in India's justice delivery system.
The Hindu Indian state and its corrupt Brahmin-caste-dominated legal system has once again failed to bring the perpetrators of hate crimes to book. It has repeated what it did recently after the 2002 Gujarat pogrom and what it did after the state-sponsored November 1984 Sikh pogrom when no one was found guilty from among the rampaging Hindu mobs who murdered over ten thousand innocent Sikh men, women and children in Delhi. This is despite the fact that India is a signatory of the International Convention on Genocide, 1948, whose Article II defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" like: "(a) killing [its] members; (b) causing [them] serious bodily or mental harm; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions ... calculated to bring about its physical destruction... ; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) forcibly transferring [its] children ... to another group."
The November 1984 anti-Sikh Delhi pogrom and the recent Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom unambiguously fit the above definition of article II of the International Convention on Genocide, 1948 as does the Babri Mosque episode. We hope the UN will take note and censure India. Will this episode strengthen Pakistani political will to demand L. K. Advani's extradition under the 1948 arrest warrant on a charge of attempted murder which warrant has never been revoked? We Sikhs, specially those of us who are captive in the Indian map, ought to be prepared for any eventuality from these Hindutva-fundamentalist BJP fanatics. What if these BJP fanatics tomorrow decide to instal idols in Sikh gurdwaras?