IndiA: Aghast at the Babri Masjid verdict, I apologise to the thousands whose lives were ruined, and bemoan the debasement of an ancient religion, writes Jyoti Punwani | SEPT 30, 2020

You see a massive crime unfolding before you. You follow its every evil turn and twist, aghast at the depths to which the perpetrators can go, shocked at the way they destroy others’ lives. Then, the judge acquits them all, blaming unknown persons for bringing the perpetrators’ plans to fruition. What then of the things you saw, the consequences of which are being played out till today? That’s the reason I cannot bring myself to read CBI judge SK Yadav’s judgment acquitting all the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case. As a journalist, read it I must, but first, I must apologise for it. The apology is to the thousands whose lives were ruined by the movement to demolish Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid and build a Ram Mandir at the very spot where it stood. Mandir wahin banayengey, the slogan of the Ayodhya movement launched by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and then led by BJP leader LK Advani, left no one in doubt about its intention. The decade from 1982 to 1992 saw Hindu-Muslim riots erupt in places hitherto untouched to any serious extent by communal violence. The VHP’s yatras during that decade, aimed at arousing Hindus to support their cause, and then Advani’s rath yatra, unleashed such venom that small towns even in Karnataka and Kerala erupted. [ . . . ] https://www.firstpost.com/india/aghast-at-the-babri-masjid-verdict-i-apologise-to-the-thousands-whose-lives-were-ruined-and-bemoan-the-debasement-of-an-ancient-religion-writes-jyoti-punwani-8866901.html