I am glad that many important people have started supporting what I have been writing about the Gyanvapi Masjid and thousands of other places of worship in the country in the last few days. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has clearly said that temple-mosque disputes can no longer be resolved through vandalism and agitations. The best way is to follow the law passed by the Parliament in 1991 i.e. to allow the shrines to remain as they were on 15th August 1947.
Only Ram Mandir should be an exception to this. This does not mean that we should forget the deeds of foreign invaders. Those ignorant emperors made religion their weapon to establish their status and through this they converted the poor, illiterate, untouchable and ruling upper castes of India into Muslims. But who are these people? Are they foreigners? No. These people are their own brothers and sisters.
These foreign invaders swallowed many temples to satisfy their hunger for power, so they did not even spare the mosques of their rivals. Like our Hindus, if our Muslim brothers also accept this historical fact, then there will be no reduction in their devotion to Islam. There is no doubt that there are some Muslim populations who, not by the force of foreign sticks, went to Islam to escape the oppression of their own people.
Mohan Bhagwat says that all these are our people, Indians, ours. are not foreigners. Their religion may have come from abroad, but these crores of Muslims of India have not come from abroad. Why should we hold them responsible for the misdeeds of those foreign invaders? They have not demolished these temples. So what is the solution to the temple-mosque dispute now? Bhagwat says that either the two sides should communicate mutually on this issue and if they are not successful, then accept the decision of the court. This suggestion is very practical but many Hindu organizations neither agree with mutual dialogue nor are ready to accept the decision of the court.
Can any court give such a decision that all mosques should be demolished and temples should be built in their place? The Babri Masjid was destroyed. So the decision to build Ram Mandir came. But if such a decision comes now, then whether the mosques should be broken or not, people’s hearts will surely be broken into pieces. India’s peace and unity will be disturbed.
Then what to do? Do not uproot the dead. Wherever the temple-mosque are together, they should stay there. Be open to both. If there is some vacant place, then there should also be a gurudwara, church, signage etc. If so, it will be pleasant to sleep. If all the religious places are together, then the love among the people of different religions will also increase. That is why the Narasimha Rao government had acquired 63 acres of land near the Ram temple in Ayodhya. If all these are shrines, that is, the houses of God, then why can’t they all live together?
