Ayodhya amnesia

Amnesia is not just a state of mind. It is a state of politics. And, sometimes, the politics of the state. The Babri Masjid demolition took ...

Amnesia is not just a state of mind. It is a state of politics. And, sometimes, the politics of the state. The Babri Masjid demolition took place just a little over ten years ago, but it may as well have occurred in mythological times, in some longago, faraway land perpetually shrouded in sandstorms. Almost, magically, nobody who was present at that cataclysmic moment on December 6, 1992, when the three domes came crashing down under the ministrations of a undifferentiated horde of people, has any clear memory of it. They either say that they have forgotten what happened, or shrug off any responsibility for it.

Follow the fingers in this great blame game and you could go around in the circles for all of eternity and still not emerge any the wiser. The politicians said the kar sewaks did it, the kar sewaks said the politicians told them to do it, the Central government had once said the state government did it, the state government then replied that the Central government had done it. And now the Central government insists that both the Central and state governments were to blame. While the erstwhile chief minister of the state says that it is BJP party leaders who must bear the responsibility for having hatched a 8220;deep and secret8221; conspiracy for the demolition. Meanwhile, the Shankaracharya of Puri believes that both the Congress and the BJP are responsible for the mess, while the Shankaracharya of Kanchi has a proposal to sort out the mess, which the VHP has just spiked with its trishul, saying that it was a blow to the 8220;self-respect8221; of Hindus. Phew! What a thriller. Beats J.K. Rowling8217;s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix any day.

Of course, the tragedy is that despite all the statements and intentions, pronouncements and denouncements, threats and promises, we haven8217;t come even a centimetre closer to solving what is arguably independent India8217;s most intractable problem. And our chronic amnesia doesn8217;t help. We seem to have already forgotten what the prime minister observed just a couple of weeks ago that Ayodhya, to be solved, must be freed from politics.