Three senior leaders of the s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party should face trial over the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya a quarter of a century ago, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The three are accused of inciting Hindu zealots to pull down the 16th century mosque in 1992, igniting one of India’s most explosive religious disputes in which thousands died.
The court said Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti and BJP veterans L K Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi should face trial on criminal conspiracy charges.
The ruling came after a lower court dropped the charges brought against them by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), kicking off a series of appeals and counter-appeals.
“We have allowed the CBI appeal against the Allahabad High Court judgement with certain directions,” Supreme Court judges said.
The demolition of the mosque in Uttar Pradesh sparked nationwide riots in which thousands were killed, most of them Muslims.
It marked the culmination of a virulent campaign led by the BJP, which recently won elections in the state, India’s largest.
Many Hindus believe the Babri mosque was only built after the destruction of a temple and the issue remains hugely divisive.
Some BJP leaders including Bharti want a temple to Ram to be built on the ruins of the razed mosque – an idea that horrifies Uttar Pradesh’s significant Muslim minority.
Bharti said after the ruling she was “ready to hang” for the temple cause.
“There was no conspiracy. Everything was out in the open for everyone to see,” she told reporters.
“I am absolutely clear about one thing – I have always been very proud of my participation in the Ram temple movement.
“I am ready to hang, to go to jail for this.”
Advani, now 89, has consistently denied a criminal conspiracy to destroy the mosque.
He was in Ayodhya on the day of the demolition and his campaign for the temple came to define his political career.
But in a later interview with the BBC, Advani said it should never have happened and described it as the saddest day of his life.
He has been tipped to be India’s president when the role becomes vacant later this year, but local media said the charges could scupper his chances.
The Supreme Court ordered that the case, which has dragged on since charges were first filed in 1993, should be completed within two years.
However some legal experts expressed fears it would drag on longer.
“There are hundreds of witnesses in the case and now all of them will have to be re-examined,” said I B Singh, a senior lawyer who cross-examined Advani for the official inquiry into the Babri demolition.
“I doubt if this will anyway get over within the lifetime of Mr Advani.”
The court also ruled that a fourth senior BJP politician, Kalyan Singh, who was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time of the incident, should face criminal conspiracy charges.
His trial, however, will be delayed until his stint as governor of Rajasthan is over because the position of governor gives him immunity from prosecution.
The opposition Congress said the ruling party had “tried every trick in the book” to ensure that Advani, Bharti and Joshi did not face charges.
“What they (the Supreme Court) have said today means there’s clinching evidence that needs to be now argued out in the court,” said party spokesman Sanjay Jha.
The Congress demanded a speedy trial while the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) sought action against Bharti and Kalyan Singh.
The CPI said Bharti and Kalyan Singh should step down on moral grounds. The IUML said Kalyan Singh should not cling to technicalities by speaking of immunity, adding Bharti too should quit.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad said Advani’s dream of becoming phe President of India had now been dashed.
Blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the twist in the case, he said: “Advani is now out of race for the president’s post.” He added that Advani was a “scapegoat” (bali ka bakra) in the demolition case.
CBI prosecutors say it has evidence that BJP leaders who made speeches near the mosque on the day it was razed were part of the plot to bring down the mosque.
Investigators say Advani and other BJP leaders met prior to the demolition and decided it be razed which meant its destruction was a premeditated, deliberate event.
BJP leaders, including Vinay Katiyar, another accused in the case, however told reporters that the mosque’s demolition was a spontaneous action on part of the Hindu activists.
The main Babri mosque title case being fought between Muslim and Hindu litigants has been heard by courts for nearly seven decades, well before the mosque’s destruction in 1992.
BJP spokesman G V L Narasimha Rao said he did not consider the ruling a setback for the party but they would examine the order.
“We are confident that the leaders of BJP will come out unscathed (from the trial),” he said.