Whither Indian politics 33 years after Babri mosque demolition

The demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya on this day (6 December) in 1992 was not only one of the biggest watershed moments in India after its independence but marked the start of the ascendancy of the Hindutva forces in India's body politics. The religious bigotry struck at the heart of India's secular democratic foundation and the constitutional values besides leaving a wound in the entire Indian subcontinent whose vivisection in 1947 was ironically based on religion. 

After a hotly-contested and prolonged legal battle, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on 9 November 2019, handed over 2.77 acres of land, which was at the centre of a long legal scrutiny, to a trust for the construction of a Ram temple at the site and allotted five acres of land at a "prominent site" in Ayodhya for the mosque.

The unanimous ruling of the apex court was umpteen times analyzed word by word, criticised and commended for years. The verdict degenerated into triumphalism at a time when a sustained and rational dialogue was direly needed between Hindus and Muslims so that there is no lingering sense of hurt in the latter.

As per the Supreme Court order, five acres of land was also allotted to The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation at a site in Ayodhya, 25 km from the razed Babri mosque, for the construction of a mosque, which is yet to begin.   

Above all, the court was asked to adjudicate on an issue of rights and wrongs of something that happened long before the modern Indian state came into being. The adjudication had little to do with interpretation of laws but everything to do with archaeology, history, emotion and faith.

After the Supreme Court verdict, what was needed urgently was sincere and sustained Hindu-Muslim dialogues across India so that the two communities understand each other's sensitivities and work out compromises that will endure for coming generations leaving no scope for bitterness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has more than articulated his oft-repeated idea of "sabka saath sabka vikas" (with all and development for all) which he later expanded to include "sabka vishwas and sabka prayas" (needing the trust and efforts of all). It is time to introspect if this actually happened. Can you have "sabka vishwas and sabka prayas" without sustained inter-community conversations on issues of pressing mutual concerns? India must answer this question.

Electoral politics dictates that the socio-economic backwardness in India is still determined on the basis of identity politics covering castes and religious communities. Suggestions have often been put forward that India should avoid majority versus minority debates and replace it by an omnibus view of human rights.

Babri mosque destruction has irrevocably changed the way politics will be done in India. An unbiased look at history shows the consolidation of the Hindutva forces began much later. It should not be forgotten that non-BJP parties, including centrist Congress, continued to rule India for most of the years post-Babri incident barring a five-year tenure between 1998 and 2004 when BJP had led a rainbow coalition.   

But it was Narendra Modi-led BJP's victory in 2014 national elections and its winning streaks in state and 2019 and 2024 parliamentary polls that brought about a notable transformation among the rival parties, particularly Congress, in dealing with the saffron party. That is why we saw Rahul Gandhi undertaking temple visits during the elections and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress taking out Ram Navami rallies to counter BJP's own rallies and constructing the Jagannath temple in Digha last year. The strategy, which has come to be known as "soft Hindutva" is to deny BJP the opportunity to term the opposition as "anti-Hindu" and resort to politics of polarisation.    

However, it is time for votaries of secularism as the bedrock and main guiding principle of India's democracy to pause and think if an effective counter to the polarisation politics lies in matching BJP's ideology with a softer version or remaining true to the abiding values of inclusiveness in all its forms and manifestations.