Abdul Bari Masoud | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The Popular Front of India (PFI) hoped that the Supreme Court will deliver the verdict in the Babri Masjid- Ram Janmabhoomi title suit case on the basis of hard facts and records rather than “mythology” and “faith”. The Front’s national executive council, in a meeting in Kozhikode on Saturday, deliberated on the proceedings of the Babri case and its implications before passing a resolution.
The apex court has wrapped up its marathon hearing in the case which ran for 40 days. The verdict in the case in the case is due any time in November, as per the court.
The meeting also questioned the move to accord the highest civilian award of the country, Bharat Ratna, to V D Savarkar. It underlined that “Savarkar is recorded in history as a man who betrayed the freedom struggle and played an instrumental role in dividing Indian people on religious lines.”
Referring to Savarkar’s mercy petition to British rulers to buy freedom, the meeting said it speaks volumes about his loyalty to motherland. It pointed out that honouring such a “traitor” with Bharat Ratna is an insult to the freedom fighters who laid down their lives to free this country.
As regards the Ayodhya case, the PFI resolution alleged attempts from communal forces to influence the judiciary by intimidating lawyers and litigants. “However,” it read, “our hope is that such devilish tactics will fail, and truth and justice will ultimately prevail. The Babri Masjid case is not merely about the ownership of the land. The verdict in the case would be illustrative of whether the judiciary of the country is capable of ensuring the constitutional guarantees of secularism, equality before law and freedom of faith.”
The meeting appreciated the litigants and the lawyers from Muslim side who stood in defence of truth and justice despite all odds.
In another resolution, the Front demanded that the Central government ended the ongoing “oppression” of people in Kashmir.
The PFI questioned the move to accord the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna to V D Savarkar.
“Since the dictatorial move of the abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August, the entire population of Jammu and Kashmir has been made prisoners by deploying more armed forces and denying them all civil rights that the people in the rest of the country enjoy.”
It further said the lockdown in the region, cutting off all communication lines, restricting movement and arresting politicians and common people for more than two-and-a-half months is a brutal collective punishment unheard of in the past.
It urged all countrymen and political parties to raise their voice for Kashmiri people while demanding immediate withdrawal of the armed forces, release of the imprisoned people and restoration of democracy in the region.
PIF also slammed the government for obfuscating the mob-lynching count in the latest National Crime Records Bureau (2017) report.
The resolution said, “The meeting condemns attempts to manipulate national data to serve political interests of the ruling party. The exclusion of certain category of crimes such as mob lynching and crimes by influential people from the report shows that government is reluctant to recognize even the existence of such organised crimes.”
It reminded that this denial of truth is despite the fact that the Supreme Court of India has suggested special legislation against mob lynching.