Daily Briefing: Sambhal row under SC scanner; a disquiet in Congress; and more

With that, let’s get into today’s briefing, where we take you through:

• A disquiet in Congress
• 17-year-long fight for justice continues
• Champion with his heart on a sleeve

🚨 Big Story

In court: The row in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal with the Shah Jama Masjid at the epicenter continues to unfold. The Supreme Court on Friday is likely to hear the plea filed by the Masjid Committee against a local court’s recent order to survey the mosque. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna will hear the petition after the committee demanded an early hearing, seeking an immediate stay on the November 19 order.

Recap: A local court had ordered the survey in response to a petition that claimed the Mughal-era mosque was built after demolishing an ancient Hindu temple. The situation snowballed on November 24 during the second tranche of the Archaeological Survey of India’s survey. A mob of protesters pelted stones at officials and torched several vehicles. Four people died in the violence and scores, including police and administration officers, sustained injuries. The police have arrested 31 people and registered seven FIRs in the case so far.

Origin story: 

“Paanch sadi se jama rakt jab sholay ban kar khaulega, Babar bhi tab kabr se uth kar Harihar, Harihar bolega (When the frozen blood of five centuries comes to a boil, even Babar will rise from his grave and chant ‘Harihar, Harihar’).”

Mahant Rishiraj Giri reads this out to his followers– mostly from the Yadav community– sitting at the Kaila Devi Temple around 25 km from Sambhal. This is where the court petition claiming Hindu right over the city’s Jama Masjid was conceived. While Giri is petitioner no. 3 in the case, Hari Shankar Jain, petitioner no. 1, is behind several similar petitions, including on the Gyanvapi mosque adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The 70-year-old reiterates that he has taken a vow “to take back all the temples that were demolished to build mosques”.

As the row blows up, both the Hindu and Muslim communities are bringing up old, hazy “facts” which include a title suit dismissal in 1878 and a 1976 murder leading to riots and a month-long curfew.

Legal issues: Now, the petitioners allege that the mosque was built in 1526 by Mughal emperor Babur after demolishing a Hindu temple that stood there. The claims in such disputes essentially seek to change the religious character of a place of worship, something that is prohibited by the Place of Worship Act, 1991. That said, in both the Gyanvapi and Mathura’s Shahi Idgah cases, district courts have accepted the civil suits as “maintainable”, meaning that they are valid cases despite the 1991 Act. 

Another mosque under spotlight: On today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, we decode the legality issue concerning an old mosque in Uttarkashi which has led to escalating tensions in the town.

⚡ Only in Express

As the Constitution turned 75 earlier this week, our latest Dis/Agree column presents the best of both sides on a relevant question: does the document embody and satisfy the needs of a nation with a rich history or does it have circumscribed ambit?

“The assertion that the Constitution has no intrinsic value and decoloniality is imperative to prevent the decimation of what remains of “Bharat’s indigeneity” is too sweeping.” – Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor of Patna’s Chanakya National Law University says the Constitution, steeped in India’s civilisational values, shouldn’t be stuck in the past.

“The mistake that is often committed, especially in the Indian context is to assume that but for the Constitution, this country would descend into anarchy” – J Sai Deepak, a Supreme Court lawyer, writes on how ‘constitutionalism’ has become another word for extending colonial legacies.

📰 From the Front Page

After its back-to-back defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra, a sense of disquiet has grown within the Congress over the party’s “blame-the-EVM” stance. Many leaders tell The Indian Express that the defeat in Maharashtra shouldn’t be seen as a massive jolt, given that pre-poll internal surveys showed that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance could find it tough to sustain gains made in the Lok Sabha polls in June.

India has reiterated that it is Bangladesh’s responsibility to “protect the lives and liberty of all its citizens”, in backdrop of the rise in attacks against minorities in the country, ever since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said on Thursday: “Several incidents of desecration and damage to Hindu temples and deities in Bangladesh have been reported in the past few months. The Government of India has expressed its concern about such incidents…”

📌 Must Read

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) secured the custody of Salman Rehman Khan, a missing accused in 2023 radicalisation case, after he was extradited from Rwanda on Thursday. The case involves a Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked man who is alleged to have radicalised several Muslim youths in the Bengaluru central prison to take up terrorism, including Salman.

With less than two months to go until President-elect Donald Trump assumes office for a second time, the self-proclaimed “tariff man” has made his intentions clear. Trump has threatened steep tariff hikes on the United States’ top three trade partners—Mexico, Canada, and China—on his first day in office. While Mexico and China have hinted at potential retaliation, Canada has already begun negotiating. 

In 2007, when a mother didn’t return home hours after she was allegedly picked by the police in Maharashtra, her son, then 22, set out to the local police superintendent’s office to ask what happened. What he eventually discovered was shocking – his mother had died in police custody, allegedly after being tortured. 17 years later, the wheels of justice continue to turn slowly.

⏳ And Finally…

Right after his Game 3 loss in at the World Chess Championship, Ding Liren stayed rooted to his chair, eyes pierced to the floor. In a game where being poker-faced is considered a virtue, Ding’s face is a human evaluation bar: one doesn’t need to know the status of the game, just one glance at his face will break the news. 

That’s all for today.

Until tomorrow,

Vibha B Madhava and Ayesha Jain

Business As Usual by E P Unny – Nov29