An Eye-Opener

An Eye-Opener

1991 5-6 May-June 15 An Eye-Opener (351) The Rath Yatra of Mr. Lal Krishn Advani1 President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, originated from Somnath on October 1,90. It had to travel 10 thousand kilometers to reach its destination – Ayodhya. Mr. Advani and his adherents reached, Delhi on their way to Ayodhya on October 16. Here they held a mammoth meeting at which they declared that their “Ram Rath” would certainly reach Ayodhya and that they would not rest until they had built the Ram Mandir at the Ram Janam Bhumi. “No power can stop us.” One of the points made by Mr. Advani, which we would do well to remember, was that “the BJP had thrown its weight behind the Vishwa Hindu Parishad only when the Babari Masjid Action Committee had been formed in 1986 and made it a public issue.”

This makes it quite clear that forming Action Committees at the all-India level in the name of the Babari Masjid and making a public issue of it has only placed an obstacle in the path of finding a solution to the actual problem. This is because these committees, by their very existence, have produced counter movements among the Hindus, they in turn having risen to support the cause of the Ram Janam Bhumi in far greater numbers and in far superior strength. It must be conceded that the Muslim movements have given nothing to the Muslims. On the contrary, they have provided the necessary basis for unity among the Hindu community.

As ‘we all know, it takes two hands to clap. Similarly, it takes two people, or two sides to keep up hatred. Remove one hand, from the other and you cannot clap. Let one side stop hating the other and hatred of itself will fade away. The present Hindu unity is based on mutual hatred which is kept up because neither side will remove the ‘hand’ to stop the ‘clapping’.

In the present circumstances, the best strategy for the Muslims would be to remove their ‘hand’ unilaterally, Then the ‘clapping’ would cease altogether. The atmosphere subsequently created would then be entirely favourable to Muslims and Islam.