Maulana Yasub Abbas says the 1992 demolition was an assault on the Constitution; BJP attacks Gandhi’s memoir and questions her on other painful events
BARABANKI/NEW DELHI — Maulana Yasub Abbas, general secretary and spokesperson of the All India Shia Personal Law Board, has said that the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, was a dark day for the Indian Constitution. He was responding to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s account that she cried after watching on television the mosque being demolished that day.
Speaking in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, Abbas said the grief was not limited to Gandhi, but was shared by people across the country.
“Not just Sonia Gandhi, the entire country was weeping that day. Only a few people were laughing,” he said, adding that the issue was not simply the destruction of a building but an attack on the Constitution and its guarantees.
Gandhi discussed the demolition in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love. In an interview with The Guardian ahead of the book’s release, she said she had watched the Babri Masjid being demolished on television and had broken down in tears. She described the episode as part of a long struggle to preserve India’s secular character.
Abbas also called for religious places to be kept out of political disputes, saying that neither temples nor mosques were anyone’s private property.
People should be free to visit places of worship according to their faith, he said, adding that temples, mosques and gurdwaras offered people peace of mind.
He argued that political parties had already done enough politics in the name of temples and mosques and should instead focus on issues such as poverty, unemployment and education.
Asked about Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s proposed visit to Ayodhya on November 12, Abbas said it was not appropriate to view the visit solely through the lens of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. He said people should not be questioned over their religious beliefs or attire.
Abbas also said that the Supreme Court was the country’s highest court and that its decisions could not be challenged.
BJP Calls Sonia’s Memoir ‘Whitewashing’
Gandhi’s remarks have also triggered a political confrontation between the BJP and Congress.
On November 10, the day her memoir was released, BJP national spokesperson C R Kesavan accused her of attempting to gloss over the historical record of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress. He said the book should have been titled Whitewashing rather than Belonging: A Journey of Love.
Kesavan questioned whether Gandhi had expressed similar grief over the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, during which gurdwaras were targeted and thousands of people were killed. He also referred to the 2008 Batla House encounter and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, asking whether she had shown comparable concern for security personnel and civilians killed in those incidents.
The BJP spokesperson further accused Gandhi of trying to justify and normalise the Emergency imposed in 1975, which he described as an assault on the Constitution and fundamental rights.
Emergency a Mistake
In her memoir, Gandhi describes the Emergency imposed by her mother-in-law and then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 as a mistake. She writes that she believes Indira Gandhi eventually came to share that assessment.
She also suggests that much of the damage caused during the Emergency could have been avoided if her brother-in-law, Sanjay Gandhi, had been kept “in check”.
The BJP interpreted these reflections as an attempt to soften the historical record, while Gandhi’s account has brought renewed attention to the Emergency and the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The exchanges have placed the 1992 demolition, constitutional protections and the political use of religious identity back at the centre of public debate.
