LUCKNOW: December 23. The date doesn’t ring a bell when it comes to Ayodhya. Very few know this was the day the first stone for the foundation of the Ram temple movement was put in place, leading to the December 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid.
With the December 6 demolition eclipsing all milestones of the Ram temple movement timeline, people now hardly remember that the razing of the Babri Masjid had its genesis in the brisk developments on the intervening night of December 22 and 23, 1949.
This was the time when the idol of Ram Lalla (the child deity) is believed to have “appeared” inside the mosque which, the Hindus had been claiming, was constructed on Ramjanmabhoomi. Many say the idol “appeared” exactly at the proclaimed birth place of Lord Ram.
The Muslims of Ayodhya, however, claimed the idol was surreptitiously placed in the mosque by Hindu activists. But when Ayodhya woke up on December 23 to the news that Ram Lalla was in the Babri Masjid, devotees thronged the mosque in large numbers and took control of it.
Subsequently, an FIR was lodged against many saints and seers of Ayodhya at the Ayodhya kotwali by then kotwal Ram Dev Dubey on a complaint from constable Mata Prasad about the alleged placement of idols in the mosque.
Soon after, citing fears of communal unrest, then Faizabad city magistrate Guru Dutt Singh attached the mosque property and locked it for both Hindus and Muslims.This led to both sides moving court for possession of the site, giving rise to the Ayodhya title dispute, subsequent temple movement and, finally, the Babri demolition.
Since then, the VHP and other Hindu organisations have been celebrating the day as “Ram Prakatotsava”.This year too, the 10-day utsav was organised by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Sewa Samiti in coordination with the VHP and saints and seers of Ayodhya. Hundreds of Ram devotees attended the utsav from all over the country.
Senior leaders like Khaliq Ahmad Khan of the All India Milli Council, a party in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit pending before the Supreme Court, have renewed the demand for reinstatement of the mosque to the position prior to December 22, 1949.
“As efforts at various levels are on to settle the vexed issue, we demand the government to reinstate the same position of the disputed site as it was prior to 1949. Only then can any negotiation take place,” said Khan.