Catch 22

A couple of weeks ago, an Indian High Court passed one of the most important verdict of the country's most unimportant case.

The case was unimportant because it is highly stupid for a court to take up a case regarding human belief and faith. But then , since the case was already taken up, the verdict became important, since it would effect the law and order situation of an entire country.

For those who come in late, it is necessary to know, that India being a land of various cultures and religions , has witnessed foreign invasions since time immemorial. Not that similar has not been the case of many a lands besides; we differ in the sense that religious anarchy has taken precedence over other matters from one annexation to the next. As such, India remains a society divided by belief systems. So it has been one invasion followed by razing down places of worship of the previous society and building their own place of worships on their ruins and establishing their own religious domination, till the next invasion and so on.

 If the people belonging to the Hindu religion razed the Buddhist and the Jain temples as old as 600BC , then the Hindu temples were razed by some fanatic Muslim Ghazni or Ghori in their turn. This continued on and on, till the Mughal Ruler , Babur came and constructed a particular mosque named Babri Masjid over the ruins of a so said ancient Rama Lala temple.

When the British colonized India, the contrived a Divide and Rule policy , whereby they used the two major Indian religions as the tool for annexation. More than sixty years ago, the British left India, high and dry; with the seed of discord sown deeply into the psyche of confused men of a nation, not used to freedom, suddenly thrust in their faces one  fine midnight! The lingering doubts in the minds of the Congressmen from their fellow accomplices surfaced soon after their joint effort at the Freedom Fight Front had borne fruit ; which led to the saddest history of a nation ; a communal war leading to the partition of the nation into three levels , leaving behind endless rows of dead or uprooted citizens. It was at this particular time, that the question of the Babri Mosque ownership arose. The Hindus of the divided nation felt that since the Muslims had been given their separate piece of land, they no longer had right to have a mosque over the ground that was holy for the Hindus . They established a belief that  Lord Rama's birth had taken place exactly at the spot of the sanctum sanctorum of the mosque.

However, since more pressing problems invited the attention of the country's guardians at that time. The disputed place was locked for an indefinite period.  Twenty years later, the Hindus entered the disputed structure from some opening and placed idols of Rama Lala ( Baby Rama) in the sanctum, and started performing rituals in secrecy.

Although Democracy had long been established after the British rule and Indian constitution declared secularism as one of the fundamental rights of the Indian citizens, our socialistic democratic party men did not lag far behind their predecessors in using religion as a tool for their vote banks. So they opened the locked structure( read Pandora's Box) after forty years to appease a particular section of the society in the state where the structure stood.

Towing the line, the constantly loser party took a dive in the muck and renewing the Divide and Rule policy, began to spread hate culture with inflammatory speeches, Mandir Banaao Aandolan( build the temple movement) inciting passions and fever with a fervor.  The result was that people were driven in herds to raze the structure , with the ensuing result of communal riots all over the nation, and India one again became a house on fire.

Two factions of the two communities formed boards and laid claim to the site of the disputed structure in the court.

The much awaited Verdict came after sixteen years. Security was tightened all over the country, and schools and colleges remained closed all over the country for fear of riots that were supposed to break after the judgment was passed . The judgment when it came was another tripartite division : One part to the Muslim board, one to the Nirmohi Akhada ( the Hindu Claimants)  and the third part to no other than the deity Rama Lala himself !

Of course there were no riots. Why would there be? A rustic population, after all deserved the rustic Solomon like ancient Caucasian Chalk division judgment.

But then what is so comical about this tragedy is something like this :

Since the main part of the structure has been given to Rama Lala ( baby Rama) ; this judgment goes somewhat against Indian law itself. According to the law , if a property is not claimed by someone for twelve years after another has encroached upon it, then, it legally becomes the property of the encroacher. Besides this, no minor can lay claim to a property. In this case, Rama Lala ( who first of all is an eternal minor) cannot be a party to the claiming rights. Then again, taking the age of an infant to be maximum two years old, even if the so called Rama Lala lays claim to it within twelve years after his two years since his birth, then too he will be just fourteen years of age, that is , still a minor and thereby his claim would be declared null and void.

Catch 22! And the lawyers can have their hey day!

I heard that both sides will be appealing to the Supreme Court after three months again!

Lets see what the Judges there have to say...