The former Lt-Governor of Delhi expressed his disappointment over the Supreme Court ruling on the Ayodhya dispute and said the judgement led to more issues in the nation
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The Rajiv Gandhi government’s hasty response to the Shah Bano case in 1985 paved the way for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement which plunged the country into a communalism quagmire, former Delhi Lt-Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung has said.
Jung, also a retired IAS officer and former Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, argued that the Rajiv government’s decision, which was seen as a concession to religious sentiment, paved the way for the Ayodhya movement which resulted in the dastardly demolition of the historic Babri Masjid.
Jung was speaking at the “Bhogilal Leherchand & AD Shroff Memorial Lecture” in Mumbai on Monday. He discussed “Ethics & Communal Harmony — Impact on Sustainable Development and Economy” with writer Shekhar Gupta.
“Knee-jerk reactions of that government brought cascading communalism in this country. Ram Janmabhoomi was a 100-year-old movement, but it gained momentum after the Shah Bano case,” media reports quoted him as saying.
In the Shah Bano case, the Supreme Court ruled that a struggling Muslim woman would be eligible for maintenance following a divorce. In April 1978, a 62-year-old Muslim woman, Shah Bano, filed a petition in court demanding maintenance from her divorced husband. However, the court ruling was overturned when the Rajiv Gandhi administration passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.
In the meantime, a controversy erupted when the district court of Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh ordered the locks of the Babri Masjid, where there had previously been a disagreement concerning the existence of a temple, to be opened at about the same time in February 1986.
Jung expressed his disappointment over the Supreme Court ruling on the Ayodhya dispute and said the judgement led to more issues in the nation.
Jung said, “The problem will be that unless there is a review petition and Justice Chandrachud’s judgment is (over)turned, there is no end to it. There are 1,800 such mosques that are disputed in this country.”
He said these instances cannot be accounted for as the building blocks of a society that hinged itself on social harmony.
“These are not helpful in any way for our economic development,” he said.
Talking about human rights abuses are routine in countries under authoritarian rule and have resulted in poorer development for their citizens.
“An ethical community recognises and respects the dignity and agency of an individual’s identity irrespective of one’s caste, creed, religion, gender or social orientation,” he said.
He said while a functioning democracy might appear slow in decision-making as compared to its authoritarian peers, these disadvantages were transient.
“A functioning democracy is more deliberative, electoral processes manage social conflicts better, and lend stabilising legitimacy to policy decisions …” he said.
On initiatives to counter polarisation in the country, Jung added politicians casting aspersions on religions and castes must be banned from politics, and those involved in corruption and criminal cases should be barred from the electoral process.
However, he said while these elements seemed straightforward, one must catch “the bull by its horns”.
“If we don’t speak or write about it … we will end up destroying the country on caste and religious lines,” he said.
