BABARI MASJID
Mani Shankar Aiyar’s
Open Letter to Farooq Abdullah
When the general election was called in mid- October 1989. Whatever the pressures building up internally and externally, the J&K Government, in tandem with the Government of India, was firmly on top of the situation. The political situation in Kashmir received but a passing mention even in the National Front's election manifesto. Delhi's priority changed, with the change of government; from helping you shore up the State against militancy to making the undermining of your government the priority.
The NF was blinded by their fury at what they believed was your betrayal of them. They had been delighted when you had steered your National Conference (NC) towards a united Opposition front against the Congress in 1983. When the Cong at the Centre ousted you in 1984, it was a kind of rite of passage which they believed confirmed you as one of them. When, therefore, you opted in 1986 to rejoin hands with the Cong, you became the Mir Jaffer of their mythology. The myth was built around the elections of 1987. No election in India is perfect, and in J&K perhaps less so. The fact, however, is that the number of disputed seats in the 1987 elections would have made little difference to the outcome. The NC-Cong majority would have remained even if by-elections had reversed the results in every one of the disputed constituencies.
Governor Jagmohan carried this logic to its insane conclusion: disinherit you, discredit the NC, dismiss the State Assembly-and all would be well. He did just that- and into the political vacuum so created moved in the forces of terrorism, armed, financed and backed from without; and to combat the terrorism, the mailed fist of the Union. It has taken all of seven years to bring the people of J&K back into the picture by restoring politics to the State. You have found yourself reconfirmed as the representative voice of the State. As a Congressman, I naturally feel disappointed that you seem to have no more need of us. But as an Indian, I am delighted that the people of your State have unambiguously confirmed a secular nationalist as their choice. It is only secular nationalism that can freeze the turbulence unleashed by the Jagmohan mindset.
Congratulations, therefore, on the priority you have accorded to the return to their homes, in safety, security and honor, of the Kashmiri Pandits. It needs to be stressed over and over again that of the thousands and thousands of non-combatants killed in J&K these last seven years, less than a hundred were Hindus before the exodus of March-May 1990. The fact is that some 99% of the civilian victims of Kashmir terrorism have been the co-religionists of the terrorists. Whatever you can do to rehabilitate the Kashmiri Pandit who wish to return to his home in the Valley will be the crowning confirmation of your secular nationalism, the bonding adhesive of our nationhood
(Source: The Indian Express, 9 October, 1996)
Historians Statement on Babari Masjid
'Relics', 17 September, 1996
A recent reported decision of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court throwing open the site and alleged remains or artifacts attributed to excavations conducted at the site of the Babari Masjid or Ayodhya in 1992 upon and after its destruction has raised great concern once again about the way archaeological evidence is being sought to be produced for proving a special case.
The destruction of the Babari Masjid on 6 December 1992 was a flagrant violation of law; the unauthorized "excavation" thereafter was an offence committed against the provisions of the Ancient Monuments Act; and there is no explanation of the presence and activity by unauthorized persons on the site after 6 December 1992 when the site was occupied by security forces. There are, therefore, grounds for the gravest suspicion about the genuineness of the artifacts being shown or the images, etc. having been found at the site in situ.
We, therefore, demand that the Government of India should make it clear why the Archaeological Survey of India has not taken action against the unauthorized "excavation" at the Babari Masjid site and surrounding area both before and after 6 December 1992 in Ayodhya. We feel that the Archaeological Survey should immediately take possession of the alleged artifacts, inscriptions and sculptured pieces and permit their inspection by bona fide scholars, so that the whole matter of their provenance may be thoroughly probed and clarified.
1.Prof. Suraj Bhan, Kurukshetra University
2.Prof. R.S. Sharma, Patna
3.Dr. Sita Ram Roy, For. Director of Archaeology,
Bihar, Patna.
4. R.C. Singh, For. Director of Archaeology, UP,
Lucknow.
5.Prof. D. Mandal, Allahabad University
6.Prof. M. Athar Ali, AMU.
7.Prof. Irfan Habib, AMU
8.Prof. D.N. Jha, Delhi University
9.Prof. K.M. Shrimali, Delhi University
10.Prof. Iqtidar Alam Khan, AMU
11.Prof. P. Bhatia, Delhi University
12.Prof. K.N, Panikkar, JNU
13. Prof. K.K.N. Kurup, University of Calicut
14. Prof. V. Rama Krishna, University of Hyderabad.
15. Prof. Anirudha Ray, University of Calcutta.
16. Prof. Suranjan Das, Calcutta University
17, Prof. T.K. V. Subramanian, Delhi University.
