The Ayodhya Verdict

The entire country has heaved a sigh of relief over the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute which was pending for the past several decades. The case, which has spanned centuries of religious history and languished in the legal system for close to seven decades, has finally seen a closure, as a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi pronounced its verdict. In a unanimous judgment that ran into 906 pages, the Bench has ordered that a temple must be constructed at the disputed site and Muslims must be compensated with five acres of land at a prominent place in Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court on Saturday also unanimously handed over the disputed land to the Ram Temple Trust and said that the Sunni Wakf Board will be granted 5 acres of land in ‘suitable, prominent place in Ayodhya.’ It also directed the Centre to frame a scheme under which it will constitute a trust within three months and hand over the inner and outer court of the site to the trust. Though the fact remains that the issue was dragged too long by various parties involved in it, the people of the country must also congratulate Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi for having taken a bold stand in respect of putting an end to it, as also a bold judgment. The other members of the Constitution Bench were Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.

While Prime Miniter Narendra Modi has made certain very significant observations during his address to the nation on the crucial Ayodhya issue late Saturday evening, it is also very important to take note of what leaders of various stakeholder organisations have stated in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic judgment. Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, while welcoming the Supreme Court verdict and calling it as having reached ‘the right conclusion’, has also very categorically said that it should not be seen as anybody’s victory or anybody’s loss. BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking on similar lines with that of Prime Minister Modi, has appealed to all communities to accept the verdict without any doubt or complaint. The Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has said the matter should not be stretched further. He said Muslims in the country want peace and they had already said that they would accept whatever judgment the apex court delivers. He said Muslims should accept the court order and the Hindu-Muslim issue which had been going on for several years should come to an end now. Muslims of India, he said, want peace in the country. Before the court’s order, all Muslims had said they would accept it, whatever it be, the Imam pointed out.

According to the Shahi Imam, the unanimous decision taken by the Supreme Court on Ayodhya makes all realize the democratic values of India, and that is why all should respect the decision of the judiciary of the country. What however has come from KK Muhammed, a former regional director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) who was in charge of the Northern Region, is most interesting. According to a statement made by Muhhamed, the Ram Temple indeed existed at the particular spot in Ayodhya before the Babri Mosque came into existence. He has also said that he felt vindicated because he had always maintained that stand, for which he was hounded by a section of people and organisations. The only regret the people of the country can probably have is that the structure that had stood for centuries at Ayodhya should not have been demolished. After all, it was a piece of archaeological treasure that also reflected the heritage of this great country.