Exit the bulldozer, enter the survey

There’s a tearing hurry to conduct surveys, often without taking the local population into confidence. This is sure to keep the communal cauldron boiling.

So, what will be surveyed next? The Taj?

If Ajmer Sharif, among the world’s most revered Sufi shrines, can be claimed by militant Hindus to be a temple, then nothing is out of bounds. Five lakh devotees — more Hindus than Muslims — visit it during the annual urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the saint whose tomb forms the fulcrum of the shrine.

Petitioner in the Ajmer Sharif case Vishnu Gupta, chief of the Hindu Sena, is probably not aware of the many contributions made by Rajasthan’s Hindu kings to enhance the shrine’s grandeur: marble flooring and stairs, golden canopy, silver window… But can one blame him? Busy defacing boards, distributing swords, and manhandling public figures (including the late Sitaram Yechury and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan), where would he get the time to read history?

It’s surprising the Rajasthan court didn’t throw out this petition, given the iconic nature of the dargah, and the flimsy ‘evidence’ placed before it: a book by a layman. Apart from the FIRs filed against Gupta, his petitions have thrice been dismissed without a hearing by the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court.

The Rajasthan court’s action on the Ajmer Sharif petition is baffling, but more disturbing is the order directing a survey of Sambhal’s Jama Masjid, passed ex-parte on November 19 by a district court. The Supreme Court has, for the time being, put a lid on the survey findings, but we still need answers to many aspects of the Sambhal episode, which led to the death of four young Muslims.

The conduct of the public prosecutor, who didn’t object to the petition; and the district magistrate, who allowed an immediate survey without issuing notice to the mosque committee, and a second survey without the court’s permission, needs to be looked into. Why was the mosque committee informed only late night on November 23 (hours after election results showed the BJP sweeping the UP by-polls), that the survey would take place the next morning? According to the committee’s plea in the Supreme Court, after the survey team arrived early morning on November 24, the worshippers inside the masjid were asked to leave immediately.

Didn't the administration anticipate the tension that would ensue from this, and from the sudden police deployment all around the mosque early in the morning?

The 2011 census figures say that almost 78% of Sambhal town is Muslim. Shouldn’t the administration have ensured that both surveys were done after taking not just the mosque committee, but also Sambhal’s leading citizens into confidence, to minimise the insecurity and suspicion bound to be generated among the majority of Sambhal’s residents? Instead, rubbing salt into their wounds, armed cops looked on while unknown persons shouting `Jai Sri Ram’ followed the survey team after it emerged from the mosque having completed the survey.

Police have reportedly found WhatsApp messages on the phones of the Muslim youth arrested, which say that the mosque was being dug up. A mosque committee member explained that water released after the mosque’s wazukhana (ablution tank) was emptied, flowed out on to the road, giving rise to the misconception that the mosque was being excavated.

Would this rumour have spread had the administration taken Sambhal’s residents into confidence?

These are sins of omission. What about the police’s sins of commission? Convinced that rioters were hiding inside homes, the police didn’t only break the doors and windows of these homes, but, alleged the women who were inside these homes, they also broke cupboards, washing machines. When asked about this, the police said they needed proof. So, should the women have filmed the police on their rampage?

The ingrained belief among Hindutvawadis that 3,000 mosques have been built over temples has found sustenance in the current political climate and fuelled these survey petitions which violate the Places of Worship Act, 1991, and vitiate relations between Hindus and Muslims living in these ancient cities.

But now, there’s a third driving force behind claiming Muslim places of worship: the determination to make the Waqf Board toothless. The board, which enables Muslims to administer their own properties and reclaim properties that have been encroached upon, was made a major issue by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in its campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. For Muslims, it already was a burning issue.

Till the Waqf Amendment Bill is passed, we should expect more such surveys. Sambhal’s residents may want none of this, but who’s listening to them? 

(Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.