By the time you read this piece of editorial, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi would have done the stone laying ceremony of the reconstruction of Sri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. This matter has been the most awaited and one of the most controversial social and religious issues of independent India. It has been pending since independence and the successive governments only kept delaying it without making any sincere effort to resolve it. It not only required a clear mandate of people to resolve it but also a very strong political will to act on it. It was finally decided in the Apex Court by a unanimous verdict of a bench of five judges. The court ruled in favour of Ram Mandir reconstruction at the entire disputed site of 2.77 acres and also ruled to allocated five acres of land to Sunni Waqf Board on an alternate site for the construction of the mosque within Ayodhya. Though the verdict by Supreme Court was given last year on 9 November 2019, the creation of a Trust to start reconstruction took a lot of time and later Corona crises delayed the things a little further.

After independence for a long period of time, many religious and social organizations continued agitations for the ownership of the disputed site before the mainstream Hindu nationalist political party Jan Sangh, jumping into the fray. The current ruling party Bhartiya Janta Party is a remnant of the same old Jan Sangh, which always had the Ram Mandir reconstruction as their election agenda.

In its ruling, the Apex Court ruled that the demolition of Babri Masjid in1992 and the 1949 desecration of the Babri Masjid was in violation of the law. The Court also ordered to create a Trust in three months’ time to start the reconstruction of Ram Mandir. The Court observed that the archaeological evidence found by the Archaeological Survey of India shows that Babri Masjid was constructed on a structure, whose architecture was distinctly indigenous and non-Islamic. Supreme Court also verified the evidence with Sikh religious scriptures which referred to Sikh Gurus making a pilgrimage to Ayodhya and performing pooja at Ram Mandir there. The Sunni Central Waqf Board accepted the verdict and declared that it will not submit a review petition for the same. The Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid also supported the verdict saying that the dispute does not need to continue any further. Most political parties supported the verdict and appealed to all parties involved in the dispute and to communities to maintain peace and harmony.

Surprisingly, several Muslim organizations and individuals have openly come in support of reconstruction of the Ram Mandir which exemplifies the deep-rooted unity and harmony among the communities in India, if there is no politics involved. The construction of Sri Ram Mandir may take three to three and a half years to complete and the city of Ayodhya is now being planned to be developed as a major tourist and religious destination for future generations.

Many people are critical of the government for initiating the reconstruction during the Corona crisis saying that government’s priority should have been towards more aggressive and better controlling of Corona crisis and taking some stern measures to revive the economy. Yet another much larger section of people are of the view that the centuries-old dispute should finally come to an end and the best way to do that will be to have the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, especially when the top court of the country has given its verdict to build it. We should now hope that Ram Mandir’s reconstruction will put all disputes or any controversies to an end and will bring back peace and harmony in country.

-Yugal Parashar