Author: Ramesh Patange
Publication: Organiser
Date: April 22, 2001
The Marxist ideologue and former
West Bengal Chief Minister had been called as a witness before the Liberhan
Commission inquiring into the case of the Ayodhya demolition. He seems
to have waxed eloquent and strayed from the issue under discussion when
he said that the Taliban vandalism of demolition of the Bamian Buddha colossi
and the disputed structure demolition at Ayodhya belonged to the same category.
Both these events arose from savage mentality and were destructive of culture-said
the ardent follower of Joseph Stalin. More or less on the same lines many
pseudo-secularist pundits have bracketed the Ayodhya incidence with the
blantant savagery of the Taliban vandals.
It was the most ironical for the
veteran Marxist Basu to have said it, a case of Satan quoting the Bible.
Because the most anti-culture and anti-civilization behaviour is that of
the Communist rulers wherever they could capture power. Their fatherland,
the Soviet Union, emerged out of a ruthless bloody revolution that devoured
its own idealistic children. It began with a merciless massacre of all
perceivably loyal people to the Czar. The "revolutionary" vandals hacked
the Czar, his queen, their three children, without the slightest humanitarian
compunction. Thousands of Christian clergymen were butchered. Destroyed
all the vestiges of the ancient Russian culture. Built huge monuments to
satiate their own selfguardise mental appetite. Slaughtered millions of
small farmers to install their own pet uneconomic feed of collective fanning.
And Basu the devoted follower of Lenin and Stalin Shamelessly tries to
equate the destruction of the priceless Buddha statues, the standing reminders
of the glorious cultural age of Kanishka with demolition of the hideous
overgrowth mis-called Babri mosque, a sad reminder of destruction of Ram
Temple at the cite of the great historical Eminence's birth place, which
deserved the fate. Alexander Solzenitsin has vividly described the religious
tortures and 'other atrocities the Communists practised routinely in Russia,
in his famous eye-opener Gulag Archipalago". Anyone reading it cannot free
himself from the gripping horror and join his everyday life for at least
a week. In short those who are already known and what is significantly
acknowledged by Khruchev himself in the 20th Congress of CPSUB as the butchers
of humanity have no face, no business to compare the barbarism of the Taliban
with the violent expression of patriotic passion in the demolition of the
structure of national shame.
The veteran Marxist theoreticians,
Jyoti Basu, and his pseudo-secular pundits should look at the Ayodhya issue
shedding their ideological blindfolds. In Ayodhya the birth place of Rama,
there was a grand temple dedicated to child Rama. This was razed by the
alien invader Babur. He super-imposed three domes over the ruins of the
temple. The upper over-growth was erroneously named Babri mosque. Thus
what Babur, the follower of the earlier cultural predators, did was exactly
what the Taliban did in the face of world criticism. Therefore if the Taliban
barbarism is to be equated, it should squarely fit Babur's barbaric act
of superimposing the three domes on the ruins of Ramjanmabhoomi Mandir
in Ayodhya. In fact Babur's barbarism is a precedent followed by the Taliban.
The Buddhist colossi in Bamian were
not built over the ruins of mosques demolished by the Buddhists. There
was no Islam then so there was no question of mosques being there before
the huge statues. Jyoti Basu's understanding of History Buddhist mammoths
were standing tall in Bamian much before the birth of Islam or even the
birth of its Prophet, why, even before the birth of Christ. Afghanistan
of today was a country of Buddhist population. Samrat (Emperor) Kanishka
had his capital in Afghanistan. How those Afghans who had Buddhist ancestral
blood causing through their veins could be converted to Islam is a subject
of close research, these Marxists like Jyoti Basu and his secularistic
pundits should undertake. It was not due to the Marxist notion of dialectical
progression that the Buddhists in Afghanistan were converted, but because
of the invading savage hordes with the Quran in one hand and the sword
in the other, who massacred those 'Kafirs' who refused to embrace Islam.
For the last four hundred years
a peaceful agitation was going on for the demand of restoring the Ramjanmabhoomi
to the Hindus. Several attempts were made to liberate the birthplace of
Rama. These culminated into the successful demolition of the shameful blot
on Indian nationalism, in 1992. Truly, the structure was never a mosque.
For the last more than fifty years no Mussalman visited the site. Over
the last half century no namaz was offered there, no ajan given. The ancient
Marxist Jyoti Basu seems to have never visited Ayodhya. His shadow secular
fellow-travellers too appear to have never sighted the notorious structure.
And that is quite in keeping with their credo. They have no faith worth
the name they do not recognise Rama's greatness. But had they gone their,
even out of curiosity about why so many swayamsevaks and karsevaks were
massacred by the then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh's police, they would
have encountered only the three shapeless domes on the birthsite of Lord
Rama. There was no Minar for the muezzin to call the faithful through ajan.
Any place of prayer or worship of any religious denomination has a. particular
code of construction. Whether it is a temple, church, mosque or a gurdwara.
It is built according to the specification laid down by the religion. There
cannot be a temple without the sanctum sanctorum (garbhagriha). There cannot,
therefore, be any mosque without a minar for the muezzin to cry for the
faithful. Therefore whatever was demolished was not actually worthy to
be called a mosque and was not so utilised. Therefore the Ayodhya demolition
cannot be categorised as a demolition of a religious place. But with the
bluffed impression of Indian history seen through the Marxist soot on their
eyeglasses, they are incapable of grasping this simple truth.
To destroy places of worship, to
demolish temple, to disfigure beautiful specimens of architecture and sculpture
is alien to Hindu dharma. And there is no religious tenet or even saying
to indicate that the Hindu thinker could countenance vandalism. But butfarosh,
the 'idol-destroyer' is a proud epithet in Islam. If sought without the
blinkers of Marxist or so-called secular mindset, several strong exhortations
could be found in the Islamic religious writings against idol-worship and
the idol-worshippers. Therefore the Taliban spurned the offer of purchasing
the priceless pieces of art. This was reminiscent of Mohammed Ghory the
blaster of Somnath who said he was a proud butfarosh and not a butshikan
(idol-trader). Idol breaking is considered a sacred religious rite. There
are Islamic exhortation to this effect. Hindu religious writings never
permitted idol-breaking. In the famous carving of the Ajanta Elora, there
are idols of Hindu gods and goddesses, Buddhist idols and frescos, Jain
images coexisting. They are there in the best good-neighbourly stance for
centuries. But none of the followers of any of the three religions even
contemplated breaking any of them. That is Indian culture! This vandalism
of idol-breaking is an Islamic forte and came into this country along with
the Islamic hordes who invaded India.
Taliban indeed is an antithesis
of the karsevaks' intention behind gathering in Ayodhya. Talibans celebrate
destruction and vandalism, whereas the karsevaks believe in construction.
Talibans are enthusiastic in destroying other people's rights, whereas
karsevaks were fighting for their religious right. The Talibans are full
of hatred towards other religions, while the karsevaks were jealous about
their own religious rights but at the same time respectful of others' faith.
Had it not been so, they would have demolished other mosques in Ayodhya,
they would have attacked the Muslim residents of Ayodhya. But that was
never in their mind. Their enthusiasm was confined and limited to the liberation
of Ramjanmabhoomi.
There is no follower of Buddhism
in Afghanistan today, the Buddhist idols are not worshipped, Islam in Afghanistan
is not threatened by the existence of the statues, even if those statues
were spared, Islam in Afghanistan world not have suffered the wrath of
Allah. Yet the Talibans demolished the Buddhist statues merely because
they wanted to prove themselves more Islamic than other Islamic countries
in the eyes of the staunch and fanatic sections of the Umma. They demolished
the statues simply because they are steeped in the most intolerant precept:
whatever does not belong to Islamic religious conception is contemptible
and deserves destruction. This was the mentality that destroyed famous
Hindu and Buddhist universities like those of Taxila, Nalanda, etc. Thus
the action of the Taliban in demolition of the Buddhist statues was the
nadir of intolerance and barbarism.
Whether similar was the mentality
of the karsevaks in demolishing the structure in Ayodhya? Of course, Jyoti
Basu's aversion for everything Hindu may blind him to say it was similar.
But history is witness to the restraint and tolerance displayed by the
Hindus in tolerating the shameful Babri over-growth on the original Ram
temple. This could deserve a place in the annals as a record of tolerance.
The Hindus were agitating peacefully for four long centuries to recover
the site of the Ramjanmabhoomi where their sacred religious shrine was
demolished and an attempt to super-impose a mosque was made. This is indeed
a limit of patience.
But everything has a limit. Had
the administration realized this, had the court of law hastened its verdict,
had the Central Government not tried the patience of the agitators, the
karsevaks would not have been driven to their rash action. And the Babri
structure may not have been razed in 1992. But it seems that acts of omission
or commission were deliberately perpetrated to provoke the karsevaks. And
in this provocative acts the pseudo-secularist and Leftist like Jyoti Basu
were in the forefront. The one who instigates a wrongful action should
be held more responsible for the offence than the actual person committing
the offense. Therefore those who delayed the justice in this case and those
who opposed and provoked the karsevaks by their words and deeds should
be brought to book for the demolition.
Therefore these agents provocators
like those who opposed the legitimate demand for restoration of the Janmabhoomi
to the Hindus and the fake secularists should be clubbed with the Talibans.
Because the fanaticism of the Taliban and the fanaticism of the pseudo-secularists
who are not open to conviction are, of the same species. The Talibans create
terror with the help of lethal weapons. The fake secularists terrorism
rests on their monopoly of the publicity media. The Talibans cannot countenance
disagreement, the fake secularists also cannot tolerate disagreement and
free, objective discussion without resort to invectives. The Taliban does
not recognize the right to live for those who dissent. The pseudo secularists
may not go to the extent of killing the dissidents. But they treat people
who hold other views, as untouchables. They carry out all kinds of social
boycott or ostracizing against those who do not agree with them. The Talibans
indulge in idol-breaking, while the pseudo-secularist also breaks all the
objects of respect or faith. A Talibani uses hammers or mortars for breaking
the idol. A pseudo-secularist employs the device of creating delusion.
