Will Yogi set store by the Supreme Court?
text_fields
Sangh Parivar activists alongside their ilk believe and campaign that Yogi Adityanath after Gujarat’s BJP regime is showcasing exemplary specimen of strongest Hindutva rule in the nation. Yogi is often presented in media as the successor to Prime Minister Modi in future. On the other hand it is generally said there is no other chief minister who is more intolerant and cruel towards religious minorities and Dalits. The most recent incident to reinforce this idea is the Supreme Court’s criticism of Yogi Administration. On August 24 this year in a primary school in Muzaffarnagar, a teacher flung racial slur at a 7-year-old Muslim student for not doing homework and subsequently had five of the student’s classmates beat him up. A footage of this cruel act spread across the country. There came about a strong call for bringing this teacher before law; but the UP government tried by all means to somehow gloss over the incident. When the heartbroken father of the boy withdrew him from the school, demanding action against the culprits, the government put up a show of doing something by way of action. There was no visible progress. It was then Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Gandhi, approached the apex court seeking justice for the boy. The court’s observation while considering the petition has now gained huge public attention and gravity. ‘This is a very serious matter. A teacher asking classmates to beat another student simply for his belonging to a particular community! If the allegations are true, it should sting the conscience of the administration. The complaint of the child’s father says the teacher made offensive comments against a particular religion. It is in the report prepared by the police but it is not in the FIR and copy of the video was not produced along with the FIR’, the Supreme Court pointed out. The apex court also has given instructions for effective handling of the case. We can only guess what will be the Hindutva government’s approach to the court and what will happen to the case. As the Lokh Sabha polls are drawing near, Yogi Adityanath and his party may be thinking to what degree of temperature they can boil racial and communal hatred.
The Supreme Court’s judgment in the Babri Masjid case offers another typical example too. After careful examination of all the evidence, it was found that there was no temple on the site of the mosque built in 1526; there is no evidence to confirm that it was lord Rama’s birth place; however, the court on November 19, 2019 ordered that land should be allowed for constructing Ram Temple respecting the Hindu sentiments; alongside it was ordered that Muslims should be given five acres of land at a distance from Babari to construct a mosque. The main Muslim organizations rejected the suggestion of a substitute mosque. The government cobbled together an Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation and allocated five acres of land 22 km away from Babri Masjid site. The foundation announced a large mosque with a prayer hall for 2000 people and a hospital with 300 beds. What happened afterwards? The building plan for the mosque, nevertheless the foundation stone was laid on January 26, 2021, has not yet been approved. Ayodhya Development authority claims that it is an arable land, and no construction is to be allowed there. In order to change the land cvategory, a whopping Rs 12 crore has to be remitted. Government-controlled Sunni Waqf Board and Cultural Foundation could collect only 50 lakhs in contributions. The project plan is now reduced to just raising a mosque giving up 300 crores complex. That again requires plan approval and crores of rupees.
On the other hand! The 3000 crore rupee Ram Temple construction is underway after Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself having laid the foundation stone. It is declared that the first phase will be complete by December this year. For it is important to ensure the party’s victory in UP that contributes 80 MPs to the parliament. The construction alone won't help, the hateful actions should happen as a rule. No sense of justice, law, or court judgment should hamper it. Only the concerted struggle of patriots, whose conscience has not died yet, can help extinguish the fire of hatred.
