BJP leaders face trial over razing of India mosque in 1992
Top court overrules dropping of conspiracy charges
NEW DELHI // India’s highest court yesterday ordered four leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to stand trial in connection with an attack on an ancient mosque that sparked violence between Hindus and Muslims that killed thousands in 1992.
A lower court had dropped conspiracy charges against the four in a case that has languished in India’s legal system for almost 25 years. Hindu groups said the 16th century Babri Mosque was built after a temple dedicated to the Hindu god King Ram was destroyed by Muslim invaders.
Hindu fundamentalists with pickaxes and crowbars demolished the mosque in 1992. The attack in Ayodhya, 550 kilometres east of New Delhi, sparked the largest outbreak of religious violence in the country in decades, leaving 2,000 people dead. Thousands more died in later clashes caused by disputes over the site.
Hindu hardliners, including BJP members, said they wanted to build a new temple to Ram on the site.
The four party leaders are accused of making inflammatory speeches that incited thou- sands of their followers who had camped out in Ayodhya before the attack on the mosque.
The four –L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh – have said that the mosque’s demolition was a spontaneous action by angry Hindu activists.
Mr Advani, 89, has served as India’s home minister and deputy prime minister. He also served as president of the BJP.
Both Mr Joshi and Mr Bharti are federal politicians, and Mr Bharti is also a member of prime minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
Mr Singh is the governor of an Indian province, and the constitution protects him from criminal trial. Therefore, his trial will start after his term ends.
At the time of the mosque’s destruction, Mr Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, where Ayodhya is located.
The supreme court order follows demands from the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s main investigating agency, for the conspiracy charges against the party leaders to be reinstated.
The court said that the trial will be held in Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital. A separate case is under way involving about 20 people accused of the actual destruction of the mosque. The supreme court has said that both trials should be combined and a final verdict reached within two years.