Babri demolition was blatant attempt to destroy India’s secular fabric: Justice Chandru

The demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 was a blatant attempt to destroy India’s secular fabric, former Madras High Court judge, Justice K Chandru has said. Justice Chandru added that the idea propagated in 1992 by senior BJP leaders that every problem cannot be solved by the Constitution and faith must have relevance, has become true in 2020.

Justice Chandru, on Monday, was in Kolkata to attend a programme organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a Leftist students’ body. Talking exclusively to Deccan Herald, when asked about why 6 December is still being observed as a day to remember, by a section of people (including SFI), despite the fact that a court verdict has been pronounced, Justice Chandru said that destruction doesn’t solve any problem.

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“In 1992, what was done was a blatant attempt by a group to destroy the secular fabric of the Republic... and when this was destroyed the whole world laughed,” he told Deccan Herald. “This was the first time secularism was put under test.”

Justice Chandru said that the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, essentially, was a civil suit between the two groups. “In any civil suit the title deeds, the documents of the property will be analysed. This is the only case in India where title deeds are given a go-by (over faith),” he said.

Justice Chandru also believes that the propagation of the idea that certain problems can only be solved if faith is considered relevant has now taken ground. “Even when the demolition took place in 1992, (LK) Advani and (AB) Vajpayee were heard saying that every problem cannot be solved by the Constitution, and faith must have relevance. So what they said in 1992, became true in 2020,” he said.

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Talking in the context of the subject of his talk at the programme, ‘On Independence 75: On Social Justice and the Idea of India,’ Justice Chandru explained the formation of India’s Constitution and the subsequent addition of the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ to the Preamble.

“Now, if this is the Constitution, it is the India we want to have, there is a calculated attempt by the central government and the ruling party to destroy, on the one hand, socialism, on the other hand, secularism. Therefore, this meeting is to re-establish and to re-emphasise what is the value of the Constitution, what is the India that we want,” he added.

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