# “We will make the BJP sing Bhajans”. – Union Home Minister S B Chavan on Dec 5, 1992.
Another quote from a popular leader also on Dec 5, 1992 will be relevant to refer to.
# “I will tell you the arth (meaning) of the Supreme Court verdict. It does not mean we have to stop kar seva. Actually, the Supreme Court has given us the right to continue kar seva. Rokne ka to sawal hi nahin hai
(There is no question of stopping us). Tomorrow we will not be violating any court order if we perform kar seva)”. – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dec 5, 1992
In retrospect it may be easily stated that P V Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister had failed to frame his own plans to 'protect' Babri masjid.
Moreover, a lacklustre Home Minister S B Chavan too did not help much. “The shattering denouement occurred because in the end it amounted to a judgement call in which he (Rao) was left playing by the rules of an indoor game, while the Sangh took to the battlefield,” wrote Zafar Agha in ‘India Today’.
Among Rao’s associates and colleagues – Sharad Pawar (then Defence Minister) and the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh hardly had faith in the RSS’s words of assurances. Some years later Subodh Kant Sahay told me that on the advice of Pawar, he had met Prime Minister Rao and “warned” him that Kalyan Singh government could hardly be trusted with.
The Congress government had lost all initiatives to checkmate Sangh Parivar from bringing down the Masjid or the structure when it declined to act against Kalyan Singh government in UP.
At a later stage, several Congress leaders including from north east like Late P A Sangma had said: “S B Chavan acted fast in sending fax notes to UP Chief Minister. In one such belated letter to Kalyan Singh, our Home Minister had specifically mentioned that Kar Sewaks were buying Trishuls which could be used for offensive and damaging purposes”.
However, only a week prior to December 6 mega episode, S B Chavan dismissed L K Advani’s reported statement that Kar Sewa will be performed with bricks and shovels.
Chavan perhaps surprised many members in the Rajya Sabha and chiefly his party colleagues when he had said: “.....I have checked with Advaniji and he has said he was misquoted by the media”.
Sound Bytes: Refer .... a few quotes:
# “.....They should arrest me at the earliest because, after all, it is I who fulfilled one of the major objectives of our party”. – Kalyan Singh on Dec 8, 1992 – two days after Babri demolition
# “We will be performing Kar Seva with bricks and shovels on the 2.77 acres of disputed land”. – L K Advani in mid November 1992
# “The mosque is a sign of a slavery in Independent India.....”. – M M Joshi in Nov 1992
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| Uma Bharti and M M Joshi: Dec 6, 1992 |
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| Hindutva mascots: M M Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Advani, Uma Bharati |
# “The Ram Janmabhoomi Movement had a propulsion and life with or without BJP....You may well say that Hindu bashing or denigrading the moral and the spiritual force of Hinduism as an allergy is secularism. But I do not agree equating Ram Janmabhoomi with the Babri Masjid”. –
L K Advani
The Congress leadership – especially the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and more particularly Sonia Gandhi certainly had complaints against Rao.
Talk to Congress leaders, to this day many of them almost unhesitatingly hold him responsible for the erosion of the grand old party’s support base in the cow belt. Sonia Gandhi allegedly denied entry of his body to AICC head quarters. The party also denied Rao a funeral in Delhi, a place of party heroes.
Up to this day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocks at Congress leadership and the dynasty for denying ‘entry’ of P V Narasimha Rao’s body to the 24 Akbar Road AICC headquarters.
True, a number of Congress leaders regard him as a ‘usurper’ to the Nehru-Gandhi throne and a conspirator who worked against the ‘dynasty’ and also for the destruction of the Babri Masjid.
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| Rao, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi |
Iqbal Ansari, ex-Babri litigant, invited for Ram Mandir inauguration on January 22
(Iqbal's father Hashim Ansari was a plaintiff on behalf of the Sunni Central Waqf Board to the title dispute, 90-year-old Ansari (in 2010) was a die-hard anti-Congressman. He died in 2016 (July 20).
- Arrested under the infamous MISA during the emergency, in interview with me - he blamed Congress for precipitating the Mandir-Masjid dispute even as he slams secular brigade leaders like Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for instigating Muslims to fight a ‘losing’ battle against the Hindus.)
Iqbal Ansari, ex-Babri litigant, invited for Ram Mandir inauguration on January 22, 2024, by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirth Kshetra Trust.
Iqbal Ansari has been a key supporter of the Babri Masjid and had also received an invitation to attend the 'bhoomipujan' ceremony of Ram Mandir, held on August 5, 2020.
Ansari was among the hundreds who lined up and welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ayodhya on December 30, 2023, when the latter inaugurated a redeveloped railway station and a newly built airport.
During his high-profile visit, PM also laid the foundation stone of a slew of other projects in Uttar Pradesh.
In one of the videos, Iqbal could also be seen showering flowers on the Prime Minister's convoy.
"He (Modi) has come to our place. He is our guest and our Prime Minister," said Iqbal after he showered rose petals on Modi's cavalcade as it passed the Paanji Tola area during his roadshow in the temple town.
Iqbal's father, Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the land dispute case, died at the age of 95 in 2016, after which Iqbal started pursuing the case in court.
On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court backed the construction of a Ram temple by a government trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.
Iqbal's father Hashim Ansari had famously said:
"Kaun hamari Sunega (Who will listen to me)? (Smiles). I have said this before, Agar masjid chhor dene se aman hoti hae …. Toh chhor do, humey nahi chahihye. (If my leaving it all, we have peace. Let’s give it up).
Read more on this ::
Ayodhya is getting decked up for the Pran Pratishtha at the temple on January 22 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend it.
Over 7,000 guests, including cricketers and Bollywood stars, will be present at the ceremony.
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