Explained: The Ram Mandir Movement, The Babri Demolition, And The Acquittal Of All Accused

The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Monday said it would hear the petition against the acquittal of all 32 accused in the Babri Masjid Demolition case on August 1.  

The Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. The Special CBI Court in 2020 acquitted all the 32 accused in the case, including former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, and Kalyan Singh.

The current petition before the court has argued that the trial court had committed error in not convicting the accused. 

Here we explain the Ram Mandir movement, the Babri Masjid demolition, the inquiry and investigation into the demolition, and the subsequent verdict.

Background to the Ram Mandir movement

The construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya has been among the main electoral issues of BJP. It's rooted in the belief that the first Mughal emperor Babar demolished a Hindu temple in Ayodhya and built Babri Masjid on the top of the templpe's ruins.

While the political thrust to the Ram Mandir movement came in 1989, the legal and social efforts for the same had been on since 1858.

In 1858, Sheetal Dubey, the thanedar of Oudh, in a report referred to worship in the middle of Masjid Janam Asthan by a Nihang Sikh Farkor Khalsa of Punjab, who organised a havan and puja of Guru Govind Singh and erected a symbol of Shri Bhagwan within the premises of the Masjid, notes historian Meenakshi Jain in her book Rama and Ayodhya. 

Later, cases, complaints, and applications were filed in 1860, 1866, 1870, 1877, 1883, and 1885 as well, over one aspect of the dispute or the other. There were also riots in 1912 and 1934 in Ayodhya in which the dispute came up.

In 1949, Ram idols were found at the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir site. A priest in Ayodhya said at the time that he had a dream in which Lord Ram told him about the location of idols. The prirst Abhiram Das narrated the dream to the then Faizabad City Magistrate Guru Dutt Singh.

When idols were found there, The Indian Express noted that while several Hindus believed it to be a miracle, the then Faizabad Distric Magistrate KK Nayar on December 23 1949 informed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant about a group of Hindus entering the site and placing the idols.

The Express further noted, "An FIR was filed, the gates to the structure were locked, and the city magistrate attached the property. A long legal battle ensued."

The final push to the Ram Mandir movement came in 1989 when the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) did a 'shilanyas' —foundation stone-laying— at the disputed site. It was followed by LK Advani's Rath Yatra.

VHP's Shilanyas, Advani's Rath Yatra, the demolition

In 1989, the 'shilanyas' happened at the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhooni site with the blessings of the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, whose Home Minister Buta Singh met late VHP leader Ashok Singhal and granted him the permission to lay the foundation stone. 

As communal tensions rose, the Union government urged VHP to conduct the ceremony outside the disputed side but the VHP defied the government.

The Indian Express noted, "But on November 9, a congregation of VHP leaders, including Sadhus, dug a 7x7x7 ft pit to lay the singhdwar (main entrance) of the sanctum sanctorium, clearly on the disputed land, defying the agreement they had made with the authorities."

In 1990, LK Advani began his rath yatra, which would go on to be the most significant milestone in the Ram Mandir movement. 

India Today magazine noted that Advani embarked on his first Toyota rath yatra, catalysing a chain of events that resulted in the demolition of the Babri Masjid two years later.

In September 1990, Advani began his Rath Yatra from Gujarat's Somnath to Ayodhya to make people aware about the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and to raise support for the call of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. 

While it was under the banner of religion, it was also a political act. India Today noted, "It whipped up a strong Hindu fervour and increased the party's votebank from 85 in 1989 to 120 in the 1991 general elections."

The Rath Yatra also led to communal violence in Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. Advani was arrested in October 1990 in Bihar's Samastipur at the orders of the then Chief Minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav. Advani was on his way to Ayodhya for kar seva when he was arrested. 

In 1992, thousands of right-wing Hindu kar sevaks climbed the Babri Masjid and demolished it.

The inquiry and court verdict

The Government of India in 1992 appointed Liberhan Commission to inquire into the Babri Masjid demolition.

The one-man commission of former Justice MS Liberhan submitted the report after 17 years of demolition in 2009.

The Commission found that it was "established beyond doubt" that the events leading to the demolition were "neither spontaneous nor unplanned", according to an IANS report from 2009 citing the Commission report.

"It stands established beyond doubt that the events of the day were neither spontaneous nor unplanned nor an unforeseen overflowing of the people's emotion, nor the result of a foreign conspiracy as some overly imaginative people have tried to suggest," reported IANS citing the Commission report.

It blamed the Sangh Parivar for the demolition.

The IANS reported the Commission report as saying, "As the inner core of the Parivar, the top leadership of the RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and the BJP bear primary responsibility [for the demolition]."

Journalist Sanjay Kaw, who went to Ayodhya undercover at the time, also noted that the demolition was planned.

"I witnessed an awesome organisational machinery managing the needs of tens of thousands of kar sevaks: identity cards, meal coupons, tents, lights, feeding arrangements. The machinery wasn’t, however, confined to merely boarding and lodging. The tools required for the final demolition were also being put together. Everyone knew that D-Day was nearing," wrote Kaw in an article in Outlook in 2010.

The Special CBI Court, however, did not find the 32 accused guilty.

The Court acquitted all the accused, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, and Kalyan Singh. PTI reported the Court as observing that the late VHP leader Ashok Singhal wanted to save the structure because Ram idols were inside.

The CBI had argued that the accused conspired and instigated 'kar sevaks' to demolish the mosque.

What the current petition argues

The current petition filed by Ayodhya residents Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad argues that the trial court had made an error in its verdict as ample evidence was on record.

Notably, the trial judge had refused to believe newspaper cuttings and video clips as evidence as the originals of the same were not produced, while the entire edifice of the case rested on these pieces of documentary evidence, reported PTI. The trial judge also had held that the CBI could not produce any evidence that the accused had a meeting of mind with karsevaks who demolished the structure.

The grounds for not accepting video evidence was that the CBI never video cassettes to forensic laboratories to ascertain their veracity, according to PTI.

The petitioners have said, "The trial judge did not appreciate the evidence of conspiracy in the right perspective."

The petition sought setting aside of the Special CBI Court's 2020 verdict.