Page 22 - February EW 2024 PDF

Editorial

RAM MANDIR: WHAT TEACHERS SHOULD TEACH and intends to construct a mosque in
Ayodhya to be named after Prophet
Mohammed’s father.
ontrary to the assertions of and finally adjudicated in 2019 by a Now the onus is on the BJP gov-
die-hard Left influenced secu- full bench of erudite judges steeped ernment at the Centre and in several
Clarists and regressive Muslim in the knowledge of constitutional states that unreservedly backed the
leaders, the smooth establishment law and the rules of natural justice. Ram Mandir proposal to ensure that
and consecration of the resplendent While describing the vandalisation the judicial verdict is not transformed
Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January and destruction of Babri Masjid three into vengeful Hindu triumphalism,
22 will strengthen Hindu-Muslim har- decades ago as a condemnable “gross and instead culminates in Hindu-
mony rather than damage it. As such, violation of law” but accepting it as Muslim harmony, which was Mahat-
it bodes well for snuffing out the em- a fait accompli, in their lengthy rea- ma Gandhi’s most cherished dream.
bers of communal fires lit by Muslim soned judgements, the full bench of For educators and teachers in par-
warlords from Central Asia who in- the apex court (which included a Mus- ticular, obliged to narrate the history
vaded the subcontinent and colonised lim judge) permitted the petitioner of the successful construction of the
it from the 16th century onwards, and Hindu religious trusts to re-erect a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, it is impor-
subsequently the British who devised new Ram Temple at the disputed site, tant to present the facts and circum-
a successful divide and rule strategy which many devout Hindu citizens stances as set out above in the cause of
that enabled it to colonise and plunder revere as the birthplace of Lord Ram. communal peace and harmony going
the Indian subcontinent for almost Simultaneously in a commendably forward. The truth that this new cen-
two centuries after the end of Mughal Solomon-like judgement, the apex tre of worship of India’s Hindu major-
rule. court judges decreed the award of a ity population has been established by
For one, it’s important to note that 5-acre site nearby for the construction the rule of law rather than fire, sword
unlike the sacred sites of Christianity of a new mosque for citizens of the ag- and bloodshed, represents a triumph
and Islam — the Vatican and Mecca grieved Muslim minority community of Indian civilisation. They should
— which were established by fire to offer prayers and devotion. To its teach that resolution of religious dis-
and sword, the new Ram Temple in credit and in the interest of communal putes through secular, unbiased judi-
Ayodhya is the outcome of prolonged peace and harmony, the Sunni Waqf cial verdicts provide opportunity for
judicial deliberation and courtroom Board of UP representing the Muslim the next generation to unite to develop
battles stretched over half a century community has accepted the verdict a peaceful and prosperous India.

SET BALL ROLLING IN JUDICIAL REFORMS that Bilkis has been granted justice,
However while there is celebration
there’s little media and public com-
he latest supreme court verdict gang-raped and murdered as also her ment that 22 years have elapsed since
in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape three-year-old daughter, two minor the commission of these atrocious of-
Tand multiple murder case which brothers, two minor sisters and the fences before final closure. It’s also
dates back to the 2002 anti-Muslim cousin’s two-days-old child — that curious that the death sentence which
pogrom in Gujarat, has somewhat re- the normative commutation of life the courts are obliged to impose in the
deemed the image of the apex court sentence for good behaviour after 14 rarest of rare cases, has been a blind-
which has failed to mandate the root years, cannot be applied in this case. spot of several high apex courts, in
and branch judicial reforms which in- Yet it’s a measure of the majestic this surely rarest of rare cases.
dependent India patiently awaits. An indolence of the criminal justice sys- Several Law Commissions have
estimated 4,000 citizens of India’s tem that although these unspeakable recommended radical reform of the
200 million Muslim minority commu- atrocities were suffered by Bilkis Bano clearly dysfunctional legal system
nity were murdered, plundered and and her kin in 2002, a special CBI which has a backlog of 55 million
violated over a period of three days, court convicted the accused in 2008. pending cases. But for mysterious rea-
without meaningful intervention by After that, Bombay high court upheld sons, these reforms have not been im-
the police. the conviction in 2017 but not before plemented. Meanwhile the seemingly
In the final verdict which has re- ordering the transfer of the convicts to helpless justices of the Supreme Court
incarcerated the 11 convicts who had prison in Gujarat (“their state”) where could set the ball rolling by mandat-
been released after serving 14-year jail they reportedly enjoyed long periods ing modest procedural reforms such
sentences — under law, life sentences of parole. In 2021, a Gujarat Jail Ad- as greater reliance on written submis-
are normatively commuted after con- visory Committee recommended re- sions; limiting the time of loquacious
victs have served this time — the full- lease of the convicts on completion of lawyers to address courts to 60 min-
bench judgement delivered in 2019 14 years incarceration on grounds of utes; permitting digital depositions;
and the latest (January 8) two-judge “good behaviour” while serving their restricting the number of witnesses,
bench review judgement, the apex sentences. Accordingly on August 15, and barring more than two adjourn-
court has rightly held that the nature 2022 (Independence Day), these con- ments. Curiously their lordships of
of the crimes committed against Bilkis victs were released from prison and the apex court seem to have forgotten
Bano were so heinous — apart from greeted with garlands by ministers of the most basic maxim of law: justice
Bilkis, her mother and cousin were Gujarat's ruling BJP government. delayed is justice denied.

22 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2024