A judgment after sixty years

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court today pronounced its judgment in the long running Ram Janmabhoomi - Babri Masjid land title case. So far, the response of the principal parties in the case has been very balanced and dignified. Quite expectedly, though, one group of litigants is not satisfied with the judgment and has declared its intention to prefer an appeal against it to the Supreme Court within the given ninety days. But what is, heartening is that except for a human rights lawyer, who has called the judgment a political rather than a judicial decision, and a senior politician, who has made an effort to make political capital out of the situation, all others interviewed on a plethora of television news channels – be it politicians, religious leaders, lawyers, social workers, journalists or ordinary people on the street in Ayodhya or elsewhere in the country – have responded to the judgment in a very cool and collected manner. This definitely is going to have a calming effect on all those thinking in terms of having “won” or “lost” the case.

Today’s is an important date in the history of our country, almost as important as the 6^th December 1992, but in a positive way. Let us all resolve today that now on we Indians - whether Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsees, Jews or atheists – shall put what divides us behind us and shall build on what unites us, and that we shall build well.