Indian Press on Mahatma Gandhi’s Spiritual Ideology, Babri Masjid Demolition and COVID: New Age Islam's Selection, 2 October 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Bureau
2 October
2020
• Being Witness to the Babri Masjid Demolition
By Seema Chishti
• About Closure, Not Justice
By Neerja Chowdhury
• Rajchandra and Gandhi’s Spiritual Ideology
By Anup Taneja
• I, Me, Myself?
By Dr Saleh Tabib
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Being Witness To The Babri Masjid Demolition
By Seema Chishti
October 02,
2020
Kar
Sevaks atop the dome of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Photo Archives
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No court judgment can erase what journalists recorded in Ayodhya in 1992
In the FIR
carefully written out in Hindi at Thana Ramjanambhoomi, Ayodhya on December 11,
1992, I mentioned two U-matic tapes, one camera battery, one Hanimex still
camera and a still film roll. I was reporting back then on television for a
monthly video news magazine, Eyewitness. But writing FIRs was certainly a first
for someone two and a half years into the trade. A photocopy remains with me of
the ruled sheet — now Exhibit ‘K’-139 in the ‘AP’ (Ayodhya Prakaran) Lucknow
Court.
Reporters
like me, rushing to capture the beautiful town of Ayodhya on the banks of the
river Sarayu, ended up scrambling between recording the social and political
tensions that brewed away from the grandeur of the Sarayu and the story that
silent Ayodhya told of living with juxtaposed centuries-old truths.
How I
landed the assignment was a question I was asked later. I attribute that to my
Executive Producer Karan Thapar’s faith in my fluency in Hindi and familiarity
with U.P. then. In addition, I was born to a Hindu-Muslim couple, which meant I
was familiar with the customs, traditions and prejudices of both sides. What
was clear in our monthly news meetings was that something important was bound
to occur on December 6, given that thousands had been allowed to gather there
by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State government headed by Chief Minister
Kalyan Singh. There was a court order permitting “symbolic construction”
outside the Babri Masjid. The State government gave a sworn assurance to the
apex court that no harm would be allowed to fall on the 16th century mosque,
the epicentre of massive turmoil whipped up by a countrywide rath yatra two
years earlier and campaigns for years preceding it, making it a symbol of hate.
The age of
the journalist foregrounding herself was still a few decades away. But as the
focussed demolition was captured by cameras and pens, reporters and
camerapersons did end up as part of the story. After ensuring that their
devices stopped recording the demolition that started taking place shortly
before noon, reporters were evicted from the site of the “symbolic kar seva”.
But notebooks,
ballpoints and cameras were still to be able to capture what unfolded.
Recorders of the event — photographers like Praveen Jain and reporters like
Mark Tully, Ramdutt Tripathi and Rakesh Sinha — managed to gather their notes,
pictures and wits to tell the tale.
This
reporting assignment lasted a long time. Reporters were turned into witnesses
in courts and an inquiry commission always managed to bring the assignment back
to life. All ‘ground’ stints are excellent teachers; this one more so. Tracking
the story of the nation from then on made the reporter’s notebook a really
thick and much thumbed one. The one disturbing question after this week’s
Central Bureau of Investigation court order is whether vandals attacking
journalists to ensure that no evidence survived of the demolition have won this
round.
But the
first draft of history was recorded faithfully then and it will hold good
against all attempts to rewrite the events of that fateful day. No court
judgment can erase or overturn what a bunch of journalists saw, recorded and
wrote from Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
----
Seema
Chishti was reporting from Ayodhya for ‘Eyewitness’, HTV’s video news magazine
on December 6, 1992. She is an independent journalist/writer based in Delhi
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/being-witness-to-the-babri-masjid-demolition/article32746112.ece
----
About Closure, Not Justice
By Neerja Chowdhury
Oct 02,
2020
Supreme
Court of India
-----
In November
2019, the Supreme Court gave its go-ahead for building a Ram temple where the
Babri masjid once stood. And now the special CBI court has given its judgment
that no one is guilty of having demolished the mosque on December 6, 1992. The
judgment may bring a closure to the Ayodhya chapter. But it has not brought
justice.
It was no
less than the country’s Supreme Court which had in 2017 and in 2019 pointed out
that the demolition of the masjid was ‘a calculated act’, ‘unlawful’, and ‘an
egregious violation of the rule of law’.
The special
CBI judge has cited lack of evidence against LK Advani, MM Joshi, Kalyan Singh,
Uma Bharati and 28 others and acquitted them. Forty-nine of them were
originally charged — 17 died during the pendency of the case — of criminal
conspiracy and lesser crimes like incitement, rioting and creating enmity
between communities. They have been pronounced not guilty on all charges.
CBI judge
SK Yadav has attributed what happened on that fateful day to a spontaneous
outburst of anger and emotion. A few hundred angry people can climb atop the
16th century mosque but cannot desecrate it with their bare hands in the heat
of the moment, all within five hours. There were photographs and eyewitnesses
showing kar sevaks using shovels, pickaxes, rods, ropes and more. So they, at
least a group, had come prepared and knew what to do. Who were these faceless
people? Even if they were ‘Pakistanis’ or ‘terrorists’, as alluded by the
judge, we are nowhere nearer the truth about their identity.
Twenty-eight
years — and six PMs belonging to the BJP, Congress and the Third Front — down
the line, we still do not know who was responsible for it. That does not say
much for a nation of a billion-plus people, a system of parliamentary democracy
we have taken pride in, or our institutions, be it the judiciary or the
investigating agencies. If anything, the judge puts the CBI—the ‘caged parrot’
or ‘its master’s voice’ in the words of the Supreme Court seven years ago — on
the mat for shoddy investigation. Even minimum requirements like the
authentication of documents and videos was not done.
It is
really our institutions which are in the dock today. And the Ayodhya judgments
have once again underlined the new reality of how much these institutions have
undergone a change. That it should take 28 years to get a judgment speaks
volumes about the state of affairs in the judiciary. By this time, the accused
could have lost their memory, and they deposed only a few weeks ago. Advani is
92 years old, Joshi and Kalyan Singh 86 years. India has also moved on. Today,
two out of three Indians have no familiarity with Ayodhya or the demolition,
with 65% of the population under 35. And half the Indians were not even born in
1992 and would accept whatever they are told about what happened years ago.
The trial
started seriously only three years ago. No other issue has determined the
trajectory of Indian politics in independent India as has Ayodhya. A verdict,
either way, after 28 years, is anyway a mockery of justice.
Had the
verdict, hypothetically speaking, held any of these senior BJP, RSS or VHP leaders
guilty, it would have brought them centre stage again as charioteers of a
movement which catapulted the BJP from a pathetic two Lok Sabha seats in 1984
to 80-plus in 1991 with the graph climbing upwards after that. The foundations
of the edifice later erected by Vajpayee and Modi were laid in those years of
Advani’s Ram rath yatra in 1990, and the temple movement that followed. It
created the ‘mahaul’ which led to the demolition. Had Messrs Advani, Joshi and
others been charged, they would have gone in appeal, and the focus would have
shifted back to them again. Today, they are on the margins.
As things
stand, the Ram mandir is getting identified with Modi. The ruling for the
temple has come in his tenure. It is he who laid the first brick for its construction
on August 5 this year. It is he who is fulfilling the Sangh Parivar’s core
agenda. In all likelihood, he will inaugurate the temple when it is completed
in the run-up to 2024 General Elections. It may give the BJP some electoral
advantage in UP in 2022, and nationally in 2024. The mandir today has become
more about Modi than about Advani, Joshi, Kalyan, Katiyar or Uma.
There was a
time when Advani had made an offer to the Muslim leadership — that if they
agreed to let the mandir be built in Ayodhya, the BJP could let go of its claim
on Kashi and Mathura. But this was neither acceptable to the Muslim side nor to
the VHP at the time.
In the last
few weeks, the Mathura-Kashi issues have come to the fore again. Petitions were
filed for the removal of the Gyan Vapi mosque and the Shahi Idgah located
inside the Kashi and Mathura temples. The Place of Worship Act, 1991, was also
challenged in June this year. Legislated during PV Narasimha Rao’s premiership,
it prohibited any change in the status of any religious place as it existed on
August 15, 1947, barring Ram Janmabhoomi. Therefore, it went to protect Kashi
and Mathura as they stand today, with the mosques inside their premises.
With the
two judgments on Ayodhya, Hindu militant groups may now be tempted — and
emboldened — to push the envelope to ‘reclaim’ Kashi and Mathura. It was part
of the VHP agenda. From the moves made recently, it seems that they may keep it
as an issue in reserve, which can be hyped up if the economic hardship
increases in the months to come. So the Mandir story may be far from over.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/about-closure-not-justice-149612
----
Rajchandra And Gandhiji’s Spiritual Ideology
By Anup Taneja
October 2,
2020
Gandhi
Jayanti
-----
In his very
first meeting with Shrimad Rajchandra, also known as Raichandbhai – a Jain
poet, mystic and philosopher – in July 1891, MK Gandhi was convinced that he
was a man of great character and erudition. What appealed to Gandhi most about
Rajchandra was his spotless character, wide knowledge of scriptures, his
burning passion for Self-realisation and above all, his ability to remember and
attend to many things simultaneously.
Despite
being engaged in the business of pearls and diamonds, Rajchandra yearned to see
God, face-to-face. Gandhi writes: “The man who, immediately on finishing his
talk about weighty business transactions, began to write about the hidden
things of the spirit, could evidently not be a businessman at all, but a real
seeker after Truth.” According to Gandhi, Rajchandra was the very embodiment of
non-attachment and renunciation; he considered
the whole world as his family and his love extended to all living
beings. Gandhi imbibed from Rajchandra his lessons for self-improvement and on
Truth and non-violence.
Long before
Gandhi came to be called as a ‘Mahatma’, he faced a spiritual crisis in South
Africa when his Christian and Muslim friends were pressing him to convert to
their faiths. During this crucial phase Gandhi sought advice from his spiritual
guide, Rajchandraji, in a letter which contained some questions relating to
spiritual matters. One of the questions raised by Gandhi was: “If a snake is
about to bite me, should I allow myself to be bitten or should I kill it, if
that is the only way in which I can save myself?”
Rajchandra
wrote back saying that though he would hesitate to advise that he should let
the snake bite him, yet, at the same time, it was important to understand that
after having realised that the body is perishable, where lies the justification
in killing the snake (that clings to its body with love) and in protecting the
body that has no value for him?
Rajchandra
further said that anyone who wants to evolve at the spiritual level should
allow his body to perish in a situation like this. Even for a person who does
not desire spiritual welfare, it would not be advisable to kill the snake; the reason being that this sinful act will
result in severe punishment in the
nether worlds. However, a person who lacks culture and character may be advised
to kill the snake, but we should wish that neither you nor I will even dream of
being such a person.
Little
wonder that Rajchandra’s emphasis on truth, compassion and non-violence in
every walk of life later crystallised as the fundamental tenets of Gandhism,
which played a significant role in the Indian struggle for independence! The
inner bond between Rajchandra and Gandhi initiated a brilliant new chapter, not
only in their own lives, and in the history of Gujarat, but in the cultural,
political and spiritual history of the entire nation.
Gandhi
said, “Many times I have said and written that I have learnt much from the
lives of many a person, but it is from the life of poet Raichandbhai, I have
learnt the most and I must say that no one else has ever made on me the
impression that Raichandbhai did.”
----
Anup Taneja
is author of the book, ‘Influences that shaped the Gandhian Ideology’
published in 2020
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/rajchandra-and-gandhijis-spiritual-ideology/
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I, Me, Myself?
By Dr Saleh Tabib
October 2,
2020
I have been
a COVID doctor for the last few months. At least technically. My hospital and
medical college was designated a COVID only centre, several months ago. My
specialization shelved for the pandemic. The response was not strictly our
specialty domain. But all hands on the deck was the order and all hands it has
been, since.
Due to the
close association and observation of COVID patients I took more than normal
interest in the evolution of the medical response to this disease across the
world. The images that were beamed in from the world were quite alarming. It
seemed that the whole world had become an intensive care unit and a significant
part of the population would be wiped out. Each country developed a standalone
response while secretly copying others.
We got our
first patient many months back and despite years of medical training our morbid
curiosity turned out to be unwarranted. The patient was a normal looking old
man. Just like the rest of us. Only that test was somehow positive and he could
infect others. He was quite amused by the activity around him. The thing that
struck us most from those early encounters with these patients was their
difficulty in coming to grips with the loneliness of isolation. The first few
days in the hospital ward were the toughest for them. Away from family with a
disease that was not fully understood amidst strangers and white clad
unrecognizable figures doing their faceless rounds. The garbled voices from the
masked figures making them feel more isolated than ever.
As time
went by we realized that the disease would take time to be fully understood.
The vaccine wars have not made it any easier, neither have the ever-increasing
numbers. Humanity’s inability to develop a composite response under one flag
has been one of the enduring legacies of this disaster. Under our PPEs we could
not show compassion and could manage to see the patients barely, inadequately,
imperfectly but they were nevertheless thankful. Imperceptibly, as healthcare
workers, we realized that it was just a matter of time before we got the
infection ourselves. And the likely source Would be the community and not our
patients. The ward in some ways seemed safer than the outside world.
A week ago,
I awoke in the middle of the night with the feeling as if a knife had been
driven into the right side of my chest. I had experienced mild fever the night
before. I couldn’t lie down. I knew that the expected visitor had arrived. With
a weariness of routine hanging over me, I went through the motions of the COVID
investigatory protocol. The result was a foregone conclusion. Pneumonia with a
little water in the chest cavity. Stable parameters. Home isolation.
Now I have
been in isolation for 8 days. For the first time in many years, time sits
heavily on my hands. The clock is unwilling. I want to fast forward it but it
seems to be frozen. The glass seems to have interminably entwined it. I look at
the walls and notice subtle things that I haven’t seen in years of residence
within these four walls. The grains of wood speaking about the age of the tree
that bore them, the flowers in the wall paper frozen in bloom and the tracks in
the flooring attesting to constant use. The room is beautiful but cold, bereft
of human company. The phone rings and I talk. The worried acquaintance at the
other end is akin to a worker in a PPE. The voice metallic, and far away. I
write often. It is my weapon against the nibble of depression. But the mind
refuses to focus and the fingers are unusually tired. I think of my ageing
mother and my kids. I think the odds of surviving are quite high but it is the
ominous small percentage that keeps cropping up. I am not especially enamoured
with life but like any human being at my age I have some unfinished business.
That is a pull and a big one at that.
The
television sits silent. The news, unpalatable at best, is especially
unappetizing. I look at the picture and want to climb in and sit on that rock
beside the river rapids. I spend a lot of time answering messages from patients
requesting treatment of their own afflictions and niggles pertaining to my
specialty. It is strange to answer when you feel unwell. But I have desire to help
that overcomes my tiredness. Some are unaware of my sickness, some know about
it but don’t seem bothered by it, while as others forget about their own
illness if I let on. Human nature is very varied. Within a couple of days, I
sink into a routine. The days get easier. I read about patients in the past
pandemics. Isolation is a recurring theme. It is important for the patients and
even more important for the family.
Some of my
acquaintances want to visit despite the risks. It is my duty to refuse and I do
it as politely as I can. I can feel the compassion and thank my creator for
having such people in my circle. My mother is quite worried about me. She prays
and prays a lot at that. She has a rather unaffected prism that filters
complicated issues for her. She does what her experience and faith tell her to
do. It empowers her in many ways for such situations. I think that the adage I,
Me, Myself has many shades which are especially prominent during this
isolation. Does it even stand to reason?
The
pandemic isolation also drives home the point that one usually does not notice
so acutely amidst the grind of daily life. As a doctor I realize acutely that
nature is a behemoth that needs to be respected. I feel humility before this
force should be a second nature to us. We are still picking stone pebbles of
knowledge on a vast beach. We, probably, will forever be picking pebbles.
On day 6 of
my isolation I send my family for their mandatory COVID test. The reports
return the next day. I thank God once again as all of them test negative. Later
in the evening, I hear that my young son has thrown a tantrum. Unfortunately,
as a COVID isolated parent, I cannot talk to him directly. So, I call him on
phone. He seems quite grumpy. I know he is a listener. I ask him why he is so
irritable. That is when he says something that hits me like a brick. Baba, he
says, I wanted my test to be positive so that I could be with you.
This love
borne out of childish innocence is surely enough to make my heart skip a beat.
As expected, I am left speechless.
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/i-me-myself-2/
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