By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, Dec. 6, 2018: A reported 600 protest demonstrations were organised by Muslim and civil society groups across the country today, marking the fateful day on 6 December 1992 when Kar Sewaks of various Sangh organisations demolished the centuries old Babri Mosque in Ayodhya town of Uttar Pradesh.

The Mosque was demolished despite an assurance by the then chief minister, Kalyan Singh to the Supreme Court that the government would protect the mosque which Hindu groups said was built on the site of the birthplace of Lord Rama.

Kalyan Singh resigned, served a one day sentence, returned later as chief minister and is today a state governor. The main accused on the demolition, who continue to face a court trial, include L K Advani who rode the demolition’s political polarisation to bring in a BJP government by 1998, with him as deputy prime minister and Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister. Many others, including Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Ms Uma Bharti were or are union ministers.

A make shift Ram temple has functioned on the place since December 1992. The court is also hearing to rival claims by Muslims and Hindus on the ownership of the piece of land where the Mosque stood for 400 years.

Today’s main protest was led by the united parties of the Left and civil groups. They took out a march from the Mandi House culture hub to Parliament Street where several Muslim groups also congregated.

Senior Left leaders including general secretary of the CPIM, Sitaram Yechuri and senior leaders, Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Dinesh Varshney, CPI leader D Raja and CPI-ML secretary general Bhattacharya were the prominent speakers.

Yechury said the attack on and demolition of the Babri Masjid and the way the culprits had been rewards was an assault on the secular character of the Indian nation which was enshrined in the Constitution of India.

“It is an assault on the Constitution of India,” Yechuri said.

The political conspiracy, he said, was to polarise the people based on religion using all sorts of stratagems.

“We once had a slogan that Indi was defended by its four soldiers — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. This slogan has been forgotten”, he said, and a new fanaticism was being sponsored by forces who were responsible in 1948 of the assassination of the father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.