While the opponents of the saffron brigade are crying themselves hoarse declaring the Dharam Sansad, organised at Ayodhya by Udhhav Thackrey lead Shiv Nainiks on November 25th a flop shop and a damp squib, senior advocate and convenor of All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, (AIBMAC) Zafaryab Jilani surprises all by saying it was not actually a failure as it was never really meant to be a successful, in Ayodhya.
“Ayodhya was just a karmbhoomi, the political firing range, the actual target was to stir up the voters of the four states going to the polls in November & December this year,” he told Tehelka in an exclusive chat.
Jilani said by raising the Temple pitch they hoped to consolidate the Hindu voters of Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan with their Hindutva rhetoric. He added that such tactics will continue till the 2019 General elections.
The poor turnout at the much hyped event according to him is due to the fact that the general masses have basically seen through the Game Plan of these outfits. They realize that they will get nothing from them. It is now only the hardcore Hindutav voters who are now with them, the others, especially the Upper caste that had drifted towards them from Congress, seeing Congress as a weak party are now totally disillusioned and are deserting them and are now the fence sitters..
Another major reason according to Jilani for holding a dharma sansad was to apply pressure tactics through mass gathering promoting religious frenzy to influence the Supreme Court for a fast and favorable court judgment in their favour.
“They wanted to impress upon the Apex Court and to all the secular forces at large that the masses sentiments for building Ram Temple are charged and seem beyond control. Any delay in judgment on this issue of faith and any ruling against the majority community is sure to lead to a adverse repercussions, beyond the control of anyone,” said the lawyer who has been representing the AIMPLB for decades.
Expressing full faith in the Supreme Court of India, Jilani said that it is not likely that the Apex Court will be influenced by such shallow tactics, emotions and faith in taking a final call on the issue but will base its judgment on facts and documents provided by the parties to the case.
“We have submitted documents whose authenticity and relevance cannot be challenged,” said Jilani.
He said WS from 1860 to 1950 presented to the courts by Hindu offers of the likes of then district magistrate Jain Ugrah and many others clearly state that the place was never used as a Temple but there was always a mosque there. The documents state that while there was never any puja done there but namaaz was regularly offered.
Terming it a folly of the Congress, Jilani blamed the Congress at large and several individuals in particular, especially Prime Minister Narsimha Rao, who allegedly attempted to turn it into a temple, for this state of affairs. For this, he said the secular people will never forgive the Congress.
Highly appreciative of the handling of the situation by the state officers he said they have shown exemplary alertness and handled the entire situation with intelligence and foresight and ensured an incident-free event.
Role of Muslims in maintaining peace
Maintenance of poise and calm, not retaliating to or issuing any challenging statements against the Saffron brigade throughout the Dharam sansad by the majority community has come in for a lot of cheering. This intelligent behavior of not provoking or being provoked played a major role in ensuring a incident- free event. Any retaliation would have had them play into the hands of the organizers and would have led to nation wide agitations and violence.
“Yes Muslims must be praised for their intelligent attitude during this period. Their non-resistant helped quash all chances of the situation turning ugly,” said Jilani. He added that this trend of non-retaliation by the minority community started after 2014 elections.
“There is a silent agreement by and large with the Muslim social organization not to get provoked by attempts of the majority driven Saffron Organization. This has proved beneficial not just for the minority but all secular forces in the country, “ said Jilani.
Shiv Sena was put in place by us: BJP activist
The Dharam Sansad is being seen by BJP supporters in the state as a big defeat of Bal Thackrey and Shiv Sena. They are happy that the political aspiration of making inroads in Uttar Pradesh have been quashed totally and they will from now onwards think twice before invading the political domain of the BJP
A food restaurant owner in Lucknow, representing a large group of BJP in the city took great pride in declaring that what appeared as a flop show was actually the doing of the BJP aimed at putting the Shiv Sainiks in place
“In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has shown the door to the RSS and the Shiv Sainks, “ he said not wanting to be named.
Keshav Parasd Maurya, deputy Chief minister, made it clear that the Shiv Sena has absolutely no role to play in the Ram Mandir movement, neither in the past or now. He did not mince words in declaring that the BJP was in no mood to give any credit to them for any contribution to the Temple movement.
