Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday (January 24) recalled his memories from December 6, 1992, the date when the demolition of Babri Masjid was illegally carried out. Making no comments on the nature of the act itself, Javadekar said on the day of the demolition, the world was witness to how a 'historic error' was ended.
The reasoning behind 'historic error' lay further back in time. Javadekar said that Mughal emperor Babur had demolished the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya simply because he realised that "the entire soul of India resides in the premises of the temple".
"When foreign invaders like Babur came to India, why did they choose Ram temple for demolition? Because they knew that the soul of the country resides in Ram temple," the Union Minister said.
"In its place, Babur built a mosque. Although, it cannot be called a mosque since no act of worship was involved," Prakash Javadekar said, "But it was still a disputed structure."
Javadekar added that he himself is a 'direct witness' to the incident since he was present there at Ayodhya, back in December 6, 1992, as one of the karsevaks.
The Union Minister continued, "I was there on the stage. There were lakhs of karsevaks. We had also spent the previous night on the same courtyard. The three domes were visible. The next day, the world saw how a historic error was ended."
The 16th century mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992, triggering riots that left hundreds dead in the country and widening rifts between the communities.
Former deputy prime minister L K Advani, the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, former Union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, Ram Janmaboomi Teerth Kshetra Trust president Nritya Gopal Das, Shiv Sena leader Satish Pradhan, and several other politicos had been accused of being involved in the demolition of the mosque they believed occupied the spot where Lord Ram was born.
However, twenty-eight years after the Babri Masjid was razed, a special CBI court acquitted all 32 accused, noting that there were no conclusive evidence of them being involved in any conspiracy to bring down the disputed structure in Ayodhya.
The Supreme Court had made a historic judgment last year in the related Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute that paved the way for the construction of a temple at the Ayodhya site.
The apex court verdict had called the demolition an egregious violation of the rule of law.
