IT Correspondent
Mumbai, July 27:
The Shiv Sena has said that the dismissal of Babri masjid demolition case, before ground breaking ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, will be real homage to “martyrs” of Ram Janbhoomi movement.
In an editorial in party mouth piece Marathi daily “Saamna”, the Shiv Sena said that although the Ram Temple issue has been resolved in the Supreme Court, the CBI has been dragging the old Babri mosque demolition case. In all fitness of things, the case pending with CBI should be wound up before 5 August, 2020, when Prime Minister Narendta Modi, will be present for the bhoomi poojan for the construction of Ram Temple
“The topic of Babri masjid demolition automatically gets over and the Babri demolition case becomes obsolete, once you accept that Mughal Emperor Babar was an aggressor” the editorial said.
The Babri mosque was reportedly brought down on 6 December, 1992 by kar sevaks. A kar sevak is someone who offers free services for a religious cause. The kar sevaks were organized by the Vishva Hindu Parishad for the construction of the Ram temple. They believed the structure was built on the birth place of Hindu god Ram. The decades-old dispute over the site was settled in November 2019, when the Supreme Court ordered that the site be given to a trust to build a temple, and that alternative land be provided in Ayodhya for a mosque.
Shiv Sena said that the day the Babri masjid was demolished, the world saw that the faces of many “warriors” turned black with fear. The then BJP Vice President Sunder Singh Bhandari, had shrugged off his shoulders saying that “we haven’t done this, this is the job of Shiv Sena. However only Shiv Sena Chief late Balasaheb Thackeray had thundered that indeed if his Shiv Sainiks had done it, he was proud of them.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray who visited Ram Janmbhoomi on 6 March, 2020, had announced that he would contribute Rs 1 crore from his own Trust, to assist the construction of Ram temple. He was sworn in as the CM of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress combine) on 28 November, 2019. He had earlier visited Ayodhya in June 2019 and offered prayers at the makeshift Ram Lalla temple along with 18 newly-elected party MPs. The Shiv Sena, a former ally of Bharatiya Janata Party, is a strong supporter of the construction of a Ram Temple at the Ramjanmabhoomi site.
In the meanwhile, on 24 July, the Special CBI special court in Lucknow, recorded the statement of senior BJP leader L K Advani (92), under section 313 of CrPC through video conferencing. Earlier court recorded the statement of another BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi (86) and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti. Bharti had appeared in person for hearing. These BJP leaders accuse the then Congress government at the Centre of falsely implicating them in the case due to political vendetta.
The special CBI court is recording the statements of as many as 32 accused in the case after examination of the prosecution witnesses. It is conducting a day-to-day hearing to complete its trial by 31 August,2020.
