(10 Oct 2010)
The Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute came out at a
time when India has begun peeping out of the third-world-country
window. India is suddenly very uncomfortable with some of the age-old
dogma that has been plaguing its heart and soul. The aftermath of the
verdict - contrary to what most intellectuals had predicted - was one of
surprise; India did not react in the popular fashion. Instead, the way
people handled the verdict was pretty commendable!
The question of
the hour however is: does this mean that India has come of age, or was
it a compromising clever verdict? The High Court has been quite smart in
coming out with a populist verdict - something that you don't see very
often. While the rationale behind some of the 'admission' by the court
may be debated at length, one doesn't doubt that the court has behaved
in a rather 'political' manner. I - and I am sure I'm not alone there -
failed to understand the facts leading to the court ordering three
slices of the disputed land. One wonders why the court needed over six
decades if they had to finally come up with an illogical irrational and
appeasing verdict. For one, the court observed that a vast majority of
Hindus believed that their deity Ram was born in Ayodhya; this prompted
the court to conclude that Ram indeed was born in the ground zero. The
Archiological Survey of India (ASI) was completely sidelined and what
triumphed was faith. I ask: do we have a judicious judicial future at all,
if our courts follow this example of upholding community sentiments and
faiths, rather than deciding on the basis of the facts and figures
produced in the courtroom?
As kids, we used to read stories of an
ailing father, who decided to give equal share of his property to all
his sons and daughters, before he died. He was driven by a fear of a
prospective resentment amongst his offsprings if their share was
unequal. So he played smart - he decided to make each of them equally
happy. An ailing father cannot however be equated to a high court.
I'm of the view that we need to wait and watch before commenting that India has changed much in the positive direction.
The other day, I received a text message on my cellphone that read, "While India is debating where Ram was born, Australia is wondering why Laxman (the cricketer) was born!"
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