On the evening of November 8, as I received a notification on my phone through a news portal about the Supreme Court delivering the Ayodhya verdict the next day (November 9), a chill ran down my spine, dragging my attention first to the possible riots that could happen, rather than the verdict actually.
The talks on Babri Masjid make the Muslims of India shudder, taking them back to painful memories of violence that broke out in many parts of the country, after it was razed down by Hindutva thugs. Younger generations like me have been fortunate enough not to witness this blatant violation of the Constitution in broad daylight but have always been affected by the communalism and hatred it generated, later reinvigorated by Mr Modi’s ascent to the Prime Minister’s office in 2014.
A five judge bench, headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi allotted the disputed site to the Hindu plaintiff, the ones who demolished it. The verdict was expected but it still enraged me. As a civil services aspirant, I felt like throwing my Polity book in the dustbin as the SC upheld the helplessness of law, instead of its rule.
Hindu liberals asking Muslims to ‘move on’ was sickening to the core!
Move on from destruction of our prayer site. Move on from riots that it followed. Move on from the 2002 Gujarat riots. Move on from the Muzaffarnagar riots. Move on from lynchings.
In my opinion, the Ayodhya verdict is a perfect example of a majoritarian bully. The world’s largest democracy coerces, threatens and forces its minority to give up the claim of justice and make peace with discrimination.
In the words of the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, “Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.”