A generation has passed and the demolition appears to be a story of a era gone by, says Rediff.com's Sharat Pradhan, who shares his experience as a witness in court in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Top India batsman Shikhar Dhawan saw it as a historic day of celebration, while former cricketer Mohammed Kaif reminded the country of its culture of peaceful coexistence as sportspersons reacted to the bhoomi pujan ceremony for a temple of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
With several political stalwarts of Uttar Pradesh no longer on the scene, it will be keenly watched how their children lead at the hustings this time without their formidable presence.
Khan, a local politician and social worker, has been openly pro-temple during the bitter temple-mosque dispute. But there are other signs that his community wants to move on, beyond the dispute that many Hindus and Muslims feel held Ayodhya back.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Tuesday fixed November 18 as the next date of hearing in the Babri mosque demolition case. "On the request of defence counsel Hari Dutt Sharma, who is seeking an adjournment on personal grounds, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vishnu Prasad Agarwal posted the matter for further hearing on November 18," the prosecution said.
Shahi Imam of the Delhi Jama Masjid, Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, on Thursday lost his cool when a journalist questioned him regarding the Ayodhya verdict during a press conference, following which he was thrashed by supporters of the cleric.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, for whom the temple town sharpened its Hindutva plank, is facing a challenge particularly from the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing state polls.
Pakistani peacenik Hamid Mir's singular idea to ensure extremists in his country do not retaliate over the Ayodhya verdict.
With the Allahabad High Court likely to deliver its verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque title suit next month, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad rooted for a legislation to pave the way for construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
A Special Leave Petition has been filed in the Supreme Court claiming that a Buddhist monastery (Baudh Vihar) existed at the site of Babri mosque and hence the disputed land at Ayodhya should be handed over to followers of the faith.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad high court's September 30 ruling on the Ayodhya title suit, which has given one third of the disputed land to Muslims. Hindu Mahasabha'a national president Swami Chakra Pani has moved the apex court, challenging the verdict which ruled for a three-way division of the disputed land around and underneath the demolished Babri mosque with two parts to Hindus and one to Muslims.
Opposition parties led by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday created ruckus in the Lok Sabha by resorting to loud sloganeering to disrupt Union Home Minister P Chidambaram while making a statement over the Liberhan Commission's report related to the Babri mosque demolition during the ongoing discussion.
Lashing out at the Congress for raising the Babri Masjid demolition issue 'again and again', the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said the law is taking its course in the matter and advised the ruling party against giving 'edifications'. "It has been said several times that a procedure is separately going on for December 6 (the day of Babri Mosque demolition). This is a legal action," BJP's chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Arun Jaitley, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, was restrained in his reaction to the Ayodhya verdict delivered by the Allahabad high court's Lucknow bench; but his joy was hardly hidden.
With the Allahabad High Court likely to deliver its verdict on the title suit of Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Mosque next month, a prominent Muslim group has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explore efforts to find out an out of court settlement.
Maintaining that BJP leaders accused in the Babri mosque demolition fully co-operated with the Liberhan Commission, party president Rajnath Singh today said the report has been submitted after a long delay.
'You will see more laws that treat Hindus and non-Hindus, especially Muslims, quite unequally.' 'Once you see this kind of erosion of secularism, it will be very hard to get it back.'
The Liberhan Commission in its probe did not even spare the Supreme Court for its 'short-sightedness' in preventing the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh on Tuesday admitted to have instructed the district magistrate not to shoot, as it could have led to multiple casualties of Karsewaks.
A former personal security officer of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani told a special court on Friday that the Faizabad police had intelligence inputs about the possibility of attack on the Babri mosque by "kar sevaks" and its demolition.
In a historic verdict in November on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of construction of a temple. It also ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque within Ayodhya.
A senior Indian Police Service officer deposed before a special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Friday as a prosecution witness in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case, in which L K Advani and other Sangh Parivar leaders have been accused of inciting violence.
There is much more to the September 24 Ayodhya verdict than just the settlement of 'who owns the disputed land' issue.
The one-time BJP stalwart, who for some years spearheaded the Ayodhya movement and was at the helm of UP affairs, when the 16th century Babri mosque was pulled down by Hindu 'karsewaks' on December 6, 1992, failed to mobilise support of more than 40-50 people .
highlights of the Supreme Court judgment in which it unanimously granted the entire 2.77 acre of the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri masjid land in Ayodhya to deity Ram Lalla.
In what may be his last address to Bharatiya Janata Party MPs as Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Lal Krishna Advani on Tuesday expressed happiness over the display of the opposition unity in Parliament on every issue during the current winter session.
The Congress on Monday gave a clean chit to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and spiritual preacher Deoraha Baba, whose names figure in the list of those found culpable by the Liberhan Commission, for the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. "Vajpayee's name was not in the conspiracy (to demolish Babri mosque). His name was only in one of the lists," Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.
The Liberhan Commission''s Report on the Babri Mosque demolition and the Action Taken Report (ATR) will be discussed in Parliament on Monday.
Sporadic violence hit Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana region on Sunday, on the first day of the 48-hour bandh called by the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti, with protestors damaging bank ATMs, torching a hotel and indulging in vandalism to press for their demand for a separate state. Normal life came to a grinding halt as the day coincided with the anniversary of Babri mosque demolition, which is observed as 'Black Day' by various groups.
The government said it was possible that some misdirected elements may wish to disturb communal peace and harmony on the eve of December 6, the day when the Babri masjid was demolished in Ayodhya 17 years ago.
About 25 years after the incident, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said he "felt sad" for ordering firing on 'karsewaks' in Ayodhya in 1990.
The Samajwadi Party's move to join hands with Kalyan Singh, who was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister when the Babri mosque was demolished 17 years ago, may dent the party's Muslim vote bank in the coming Lok Sabha elections with some of the minority community leaders openly raising a banner of revolt.
The verdict by a special court in the Babri Masjid demolition case comes 28 years after kar sevaks razed the 16th century mosque and almost a year after the Supreme Court settled the land case in favour of a Ram temple at the disputed Ayodhya site.
The High Court's Lucknow bench hearing the Ayodhya title suits, while passing the order, also directed the CBI director to submit an interim progress report before the court on August 24 -- the next date of hearing.
Bhartiya Janshakti Party President Uma Bharti in Bhopal on Tuesday said she is ready to own responsibility for the demolition of the disputed Babri mosque at Ayodhya and has no problem even if she is hanged on the issue.
Sharjeel Usmani, the son of Assistant Professor Tariq Usmani of the AMU's Department of Geography, was picked by the Uttar Pradesh's anti-terrorist squad (ATS) sleuths from his uncle's house in Azamgarh on Wednesday and was subsequently produced in a court in Aligarh which remanded him in judicial custody, they said.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of raking up the Ayodhya issue in a bid to gain political mileage, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday claimed that it had never given a clean chit to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh on the Babri Masjid demolition issue and blamed the Congress for being 'equally responsible' for it."The SP never gave a clean chit to Kalyan on the Babri Mosque demolition. But the fact is that the Congress is equally responsible," said Amar.
Five members of a school management near Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district have been booked.
In a damage control move, while party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday roped in a large number of Maulanas to give himself a clean chit, his second-in-command Amar Singh flew down to the well-known Islamic seminary, DarulUloom Deoband in Saharanpur district to woo the clerics there.
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