Test for the soul of India!-30/09/2010

By E Jayakrishnan, India Syndicate, 30/09/2010

Test for the soul of India!

The judges and the court have done what they have to do. Now, it is over to India. Can it be that a temple and a mosque can stand side-by-side?

(YESTERDAY'S VERDICT/JUDGEMENT SHOWS AYODHYA DO NOT BELONG TO CITIZENS OF ONE COMMUNITY OR FAITH. IT IS A CITY OF ALL AND FOR ALL!!....VIBHA)

In a way, how the people of India react to the Ayodhya judgement is test for the soul of India, not just the idea.

What happens in the coming few days will decide the fate of India - will it go down as an idea that looks vibrant outside, but hollow inside? Any gesture or shrillness, either of victory or defeat from the political parties or the religious leaders will be a clarion call for the lunatic fringe in either group to stir up trouble.



Or, if there were an attempt by the any of the players to take advantage (as UP CM Mayawati has already sought to do), then the citizens of India should stand together ; oppose and smoke out the rabble-rousers.

As it is, the Sunni Wakf Board has gone on record to say that they will appeal the judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Supreme Court. Given the time usually taken for these issues to be sorted, you can safely say that the final act in this dispute will come about in years, not in months. The High Court judgement, as the Union Home recently pointed out is just the "semi-final".



Until then, the ball is in the court of the Indian citizens and the political and religious leaders in the country to ensure that they wait till the final act is played out before issuing calls for building mosques or rebuilding temples.

For that, they will have to divorce the dispute and the judgement from the historical baggage that seemingly accompany it. Not an easy task, considering that the verdict issue is likely to be hotly debated in the coming weeks to come.



But for the sake of India, especially the younger generation who have are increasingly striding the world as global citizens of an increasingly confident India. That is why, even a remote attempt to paint to the issue as a zero sum game - where one or the either idea has won - will be destroying the dreams and aspirations of the New India.



The judgement, as far as we can see in the short time that we have add since the verdict, leaves enough scope for building both a temple, where large numbers believe Lord Ram was born and rebuilding the Babri Mosque, where it once stood, before it was brought down by a fanatic mob in 1992 exists.

This is buttressed by many on both sides of the dispute that now that the judgement has divided the disputed three ways, the time is ripe for a settlement that would appeal to what is the best and the highest in India.



What a monument would be to modern India, if the temple and the mosque were to stand side-by-side. Each secure in its own faith, and the devotion of the faithful!

What is also encouraging is that at the time of going to press, not a sentence, nor a stone, has been spoken or thrown in anger. And, that can only be a happy portent for the future.

Source: India Syndicate