The ongoing controversy regarding places of worship! | Suresh Khairnar

On 24 October 1989, during the Ramshila Puja procession in Bhagalpur, riots started, which spread to almost the entire Bhagalpur Commissionerate. In which an attempt was made to destroy the houses of the people of the minority community in more than three hundred villages. And after demolishing their places of worship, we saw with our own eyes the words Ramji’s temple, Durga’s temple, Hanumanji’s temple written on the debris with black tar or red ochre. And it seemed that the existence of every Muslim living in India is in danger. And their places of worship too. We have spoken about the Bhagalpur riots wherever we got the opportunity to speak. And wherever our articles were published, it is written in them too that "Communalism will remain the central point of Indian politics for the next fifty years. And everyday issues will become secondary." And it has been thirty-five years since this happened today.

On 13 September 1991, the then Home Minister Mr. Shankarrao Chavan in the government of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao presented a bill in the Parliament of our country to pass a law regarding various places of worship. And this law was passed on 18 September 1991. According to this law, any change in the religious identity of any place of worship in our country which was established before 15 August 1947 is prohibited. And the person doing so is sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined. The only reason for making this provision is to maintain peace and harmony among the people of all religions living in our country. Because the dispute over the Babri Masjid has been going on for the last forty years. Due to this, riots have taken place after tension arose in Bhagalpur, Gujarat and various places in the country. Therefore, a provision of three years imprisonment and fine to the person creating controversy over these places of worship has been made in the resolution passed in the Parliament in 1991. And even though the Bharatiya Janata Party has succeeded in coming to power at the centre due to the Babri Masjid dispute, it has not amended this law yet. While the 1991 law is in place, the local court has registered cases of Gyanvapi of Banaras, Mathura, Bhojshala of Dhar in Madhya Pradesh and the latest disputes of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan and has even given verdicts to conduct an ASI survey. Is this not a violation of the 1991 law? And instead of punishing the person who did this, our court is accepting the case presented and giving very surprising verdicts on it. The only reason for this is that after a hundred years of propaganda by the RSS, many people in our judicial process, police and various walks of life are responsible for hatred against the minority communities. That is why they are daring to register cases while ignoring the 1991 law.

On the other hand, RSS chief Mr. Mohan Bhagwat has said that "It is wrong to find a Shiva temple under every mosque in our country!" Then despite that, who are the people raising the cases of Gyanvapi, Bhojshala, Mathura, Sambhal and Ajmer Sharif? And who are the people who have registered these cases? Similarly, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had also called the people involved in mob lynching regarding cow slaughter as "a gang of extortion goons"! And the people of the RSS itself had asked him to take back his statement! But what action was taken against the people who killed Akhlaq and Junaid by mob lynching them in Uttar Pradesh?

Mahatma Gandhi’s name is also included among those who do morning prayers for the Sangh. But who are those people who call Mahatma Gandhi’s murder as slaughter, shoot his photos even today, and speak in a language below the belt about him?

If Mohan Bhagwat has said that finding a Shiva temple under every mosque is wrong! Then who are the people behind the recent cases of Gyanvapi, Mathura, Bhojshala of Banaras and Sambhal and Ajmer Sharif? Those who are giving them a hype? The double-faced language of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been going on since its inception! This is part of their war strategy! What has been the role of the Sangh volunteers in the riots from Bhagalpur to Gujarat? This has now come to light!

But many people have praised Shri Mohan Bhagwat for saying that finding a Shiva temple under every mosque is wrong! So my request to Mohan Bhagwat is that "if he wants, he can immediately stop the ongoing controversies of Gyanvapi, Mathura, Bhojshala, Sambhal and Ajmer Sharif! Because the people with mischievous minds who do this are also his own!"

And the most important thing that Justice Madan, who investigated the Jalgaon-Bhiwandi riots of Maharashtra in the seventies, has clearly written in his report that "Whether the people of the Sangh were involved in any riot or not is a different matter. But what the Sangh tries to teach its volunteers in the daily shakhas through its intellectual games, gitos, works to create hatred against the minority communities. Therefore, according to the Indian Penal Code, it does not matter whether the members of the Sangh were directly involved in any riot or not. The propaganda that the RSS does in its daily shakhas, it bursts out and finds expression in the riots.

RSS has a lot of objections about the partition that happened 77 years ago and keeps on harping on the issue of Akhand Bharat. Even the map of India that the Sangh has includes present Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Afghanistan. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia has also imagined a federation of India. But for that, all the people living in this region will have to live in an atmosphere of mutual trust, love and brotherhood. Nor will it happen by creating riots like Sambhal Gujarat or Bhagalpur by making allegations and counter-allegations like temple-mosques, cow slaughter, love jihad, land jihad, vote jihad?

Is the Sangh taking any initiative to resolve the current disputes in India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Nagaland to Okha? Or is this happening because of the Vivekanand Kendra, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or various units of the Sangh behind these disputes? If you look inside yourself even this much, it will be of great help in the journey towards Akhand Bharat!

Dr. Suresh Khairnar, 1 December 2024, Nagpur.