Rajiv was as free of communal bias as his grandfather. But he had little appreciation of its deadly nature. For him, it was one of the several counters in the game of politics, and he handled it rather casually.
Rajiv Gandhi's handling of the Shah Bano controversy shows his confused approach to the issues ..
Nothing exposes Rajiv Gandhi's opportunistic approach to the communal issue as his handling of the Babari Masjid-Ramjanambhoomi dispute. Controversy over the Muslim Women's Bill had not only strengthened Muslim fundamentalism, it also gave a handle to the Hindu chauvinists. Though the Act in no way hurt the Hindus, it was represented as a refusal of the Muslim community to become part of the national mainstream.
During the routine morning briefing one day, Rajiv was informed by his intelligence agencies that the Hindus were much agitated over this issue. Arun Nehru, who was also present, suggested that the Ayodhya issue had been lying dormant for a long time, and it would be a good idea to arrange reopening of the shrine. Then and there the PM rang up Vir Bahadur Singh, CM, UP, to take necessary action. In separate meetings, Muslim leaders were told that as a quid pro quo for the Muslim Women's Bill, the shrine gates will have to be unlocked. This was a deal to which the Muslim spokesmen willingly agreed.
Arun Nehru later confirmed to a journalist that Ayodhya "was supposed to be a package deal ... a tit for tat for the Muslim Women's Bill." So a petition was arranged to be filed on this issue and the obliging court ordered reopening of the gates in February 1986.
Little did anybody foresee that this thoughtless act of rank expediency would ultimately lead to the destruction of the Babari Mosque in 1992. Encouraged by this victory, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) zealots stepped up their campaign to build the Ramjanambhoomi Temple at the disputed site. A move to bring consecrated bricks from all over the country was launched, and nearly 1,50,000 bricks stacked at the site. As the government felt unequal to the task of containing the Hindu communal onslaught, it made a reckless attempt to extract maximum political mileage from this operation.
Buta Singh, Home Minister, lent his good offices to evolve a face-saving device, and the government went so far as to twist a High Court judgement and misrepresented a part of a disputed plot as undisputed. This was the portion where VHP had decided to lay the foundation stone. The modalities for this strategy were worked out in the office of the UP chief minister. Consequently, the Shilanyas was performed on 9 November. Emboldened by this triumph, VHP leader Ashok Singhal boasted, "If the government thinks it has been bulldozed into allowing the foundation stone laying ceremony, we can bulldoze them further".
To cap it all, Rajiv started his election campaign from Ayodhya with the declaration that 'main Ram Rajya sthapit karunga' (I will establish Ram Rajya). But the entire strategy boomeranged. On the one hand he lost the Muslim vote and on the other he could not dent the BJP constituency. In fact the BJP score in the new Parliament shot up from 2 to 86, and a part of the credit for this spectacular rise must go to Mr. Gandhi, who managed to have the worst of both worlds. (Source: The Dynasty by S.S. Gill)
RajivGandhi on Shila Nyas, 1989
Shahabuddin's Letter to The Pioneer, 2 Feb., 1998
May I share with you the statement made to me by Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi personally, about two or three months before his tragic assassination that Shila Nyas had indeed been performed on the disputed land in violation of the status quo order of the High Court and that in authorising it he had been misled by Shri Buta Singh and Shri N.D. Tiwari. This statement of Shri Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 merely served to confirm our own conclusion that Shri Buta Singh and Shri N.D. Tiwari had together conspired with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders for performing the Shila Nyas at the eastern edge of the disputed land, but within it in November 1989, just as Shri Arun Nehru was principally responsible for having the Babari Masjid unlocked and converted into a de facto temple in February, 1986
Shri Arun Nehru, however, stands outside the political arena. Shri Buta Singh has been marginalised but Shri N.D. Tiwari has been rehabilitated as the President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress!
Whether he was BJP mole or acted according to his likes or served his Party in the best manner that he could think of, he is certainly no less responsible for preparing the ground for the ultimate demolition of the Babari Masjid as Shri P.V. Narasimha Rad.
Incidentally, Narasimha Rao is being criticised only for an act of omission i.e. not preventing the demolition. But there are two other very serious charges against him, which have been lost sight of. He, along with his Home Minister Shri S.B. Chavan permitted the construction of the concrete platform between the Shila Nyas site and the Babari Masjid to serve as the base for the proposed Mandir in July 1992 and the construction of the make-shift temple after the demolition on the Babari Masjid site, when Uttar Pradesh was under the President's .ale.
All this explains why the half-hearted but repeated apology by the Congress does not strike a chord in the Muslim ethos.
