'Eye for eye'?

Date:March 12th,1993

Time:IST 1330

Location:Bombay Stock Exchange Building

'A Black Friday in Indian History...The day,any Indian won't forget'

A Powerful Car Bomb explodes in the basement of the 28 story BSE Building...first one of the series of 13 bomb explosions that shook the commercial capital of India and shattered the dreams of a of hundreds of families killing more than 250 innocent people and injuring around 800's with damage to public property worth 27 crores.

'The most cold blooded attack ever carried on the Indian Soil'

And today,after 60 years of Indian Independence,we still boast ourselves to be the one of the 'Most Secure Places to Live on Earth'....Shocking but..True!

But what lead to this heinous act of terrorism to be carried and what were the aftetmaths of this attack?Read on to find out!

The story starts with 'another Black Day in Indian History', as the BBC described the event on its 70th anniversary, 'December 6th 1992',The Babri Masjid demolition.

Mark Tulley,a reporter with BBC witnessed at first hand the destruction of the Mosque by religious hardliners in Ayodhya.Here i have a few excerpts from his account of the day.

"On 6 December 1992, I was standing on the roof of a building with a clear view of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.This was the day the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations supporting it were to begin work on building the temple, but they had given a commitment to the government and the courts that it would only be a symbolic start, a religious ceremony and no damage would be done to the mosque.

A vast crowd, perhaps 150,000 strong, had gathered and was listening to speeches given by BJP and right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders.

Trouble first broke out in the space below us when young men wearing bright yellow headbands managed to break through the barriers.

The police stood by and watched, while some men wearing saffron headbands and appointed by the organisers to control the crowd did try to stop them.

They soon gave up, however, and joined the intruders in beating up television journalists, smashing their cameras and trampling on their tape recorders.

Encouraged by this, thousands charged towards the outer cordon of police protecting the mosque.

Very quickly, this cordon collapsed and I saw young men clambering along the branches of trees, dropping over the final barricade, and rushing towards the mosque.

The last police retreated from the mosque, their riot shields lifted to avoid being hit by stones the crowd was throwing at them, and two young men scrambled on top of the mosque's central dome and started hacking away at the mortar.

They were soon joined by others.

As telephone lines had been cut, I drove to Faizabad to file my story for the BBC and then tried to return to the site.

Before I could reach there, I and the Hindi-language journalists with me were threatened and then locked in a room by some volunteers.

We were kept there for several hours before we were rescued by a local official assisted by the head priest of one of Ayodhya's best known temples.

But by then the Babri Masjid had been totally demolished."

Also known as the 'Ayodhya crisis' some experts believe that 'such an event gave a Dent to our Commitment to Secularism'.So,did it really give a blow to secularism?....answer to this question lies in the series of events(Mumbai riots) soon after demolition, known as 'post-Babri demolition'.

Mumbai Riots

The demolition resulted in earth-shaking riots and communal violence in Mumbai and other parts of India like Ahmedabad, Surat, Calcutta, Kanpur, Malegaon, Bhopal and Delhi killing 1,788 people in Mumbai alone and injuring scores of others.The riots that started on december 6th is believed to have occured in two phases.The first phase was as a result of Muslim backlash as a result of Babri Masjid demolition in the week immediately succeding Dec 6th.

The second phase during january 1993 was a result of Hindu backlash occuring as a result of killings of Hindu workers in an area of South Mumbai.

And as an after effect of Mumbai Riots,the demographics of the Mumbai city changed drastically on religious basis.Around 2 Lakh people (both Hindus and Muslims) fled the city or their homes during the time of the riots leaving a black patch on the city's communal harmony due to separation and mistrust between the people on religious grounds.

"But did things get better after that?"

Things could have got better if immediate steps had been taken by the Government to take counter measures for stopping such incidents in future and a speedy detailed investigation carried out.Eventhough an Enquiry Commision under Justice B N Srikrishna named 'Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry' was established to identify the causes and responsiblities in the violence,but in the mean time itself anti social elements were planning for a greater degree of havoc....the most infamous 'Mumbai Blasts'

"And the target....?"

Thousands of innocents,......Again!

And after 13 years,while we are celebrating the 60 Years of Independence,The Verdict has come.'The Mumbai Verdict' to wipe out the tears of hundred of grieving families.The Verdict by Judge P D Khode,with a record number of 13,000 pages,684 witnesses,124 accused,38,070 questions and 27 criminal cases registered in different Police Stations in Mumbai City.

Although,quite great numbers to break records,still some questions remain unanswered before the people of India.

"Has the verdict really wiped out the tears of the hundreds of grieving families?"

"Why are we getting so 'Uncivilised' even in the 21st century?"

"Why Ram and Rahim can't be together,again?"

Think and be React since 'Eye for Eye would make the whole world...Blind'.

post ur response to:sreenish.krishnan@gmail.com