Amid celebrations in Ayodhya over the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a proposed Ram temple, Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Sunil Bharala on Tuesday said he still has his “prized” possession at home – a piece of a brick of the Babri mosque that was demolished 28 years ago by a frenzied mob.
Sunil Bharala was a young BJP functionary, after a stint with the RSS, when he participated in kar seva in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Presently, he is the chairman of Uttar Pradesh labour welfare council, a post equivalent to a minister of state.
“There was a mad scramble among kar sevaks to possess a piece of brick of the structure whose three domes had for decades mocked Hindus and symbolised religious persecution of the majority in their own country...I still have the prized brick at home,” Bharala told Hindustan Times.
Back then, Bharala was a functionary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Daurala unit.
“I remember that bigger leaders like LK Advaniji were on stage and repeatedly cautioning kar sevaks against taking the law into their hands. Yet, till the time he was on stage, the crowd respected his words. But the moment he left, slogans like ‘ek dhakka aur do... (just one more push...)’ were raised and they charged up many young kar sevaks like me,” he recalled.
Cut to present, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who was in Ayodhya for the bhoomi poojan today, also remembered LK Advani and said had it not been for coronavirus, Advani would have been in Ayodhya.
{{/usCountry}}Cut to present, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who was in Ayodhya for the bhoomi poojan today, also remembered LK Advani and said had it not been for coronavirus, Advani would have been in Ayodhya.
{{/usCountry}}“So many people had sacrificed, they couldn’t be here physically. There are some who couldn’t come here, Advani ji must be at his home watching this. There are some who should’ve come but couldn’t be invited because of the situation (Covid-19),” said Mohan Bhagwat.
Bharala spoke about how kar sevaks carried with them hand pump handles and other heavy hand-held iron instruments but stopped short of conceding that the build up at Ayodhya on December 6 was planned.
“For years those domes were symbols of Hindu suppression. For years, those symbols would mock us. I guess the patience of Hindus had run out. Leaders like Sadhvi Rithambhara’s speeches filled the cadres with renewed vigour and I guess it would have been impossible for anyone to stop them then,” Bharala recalled.
“I was associated with the RSS and all that I knew was that the Babri domes appeared to mock us. So, aware of the kar seva, we decided to leave for Ayodhya in a white car, which had UP ‘government’ written on it. That helped us fox the police at many places and since we had changed our attire from dhoti kurta to shirts and trousers, policemen didn’t suspect us,” Bharala said.
He said when they reached Ayodhya, Dinesh Sharma, present deputy CM, and Sadhvi Rithambhara were there. In no time they were next to the disputed structure, which was brought down in a surprisingly quick time, he added.
“I still remember the stampede that followed as the police opened cane charge to disperse the mob. I don’t know how long I ran and how far? But, when I stopped, I realised I had run away a bit too far. I only had ₹20 with me. Somehow I reached home but the scramble for the brick piece, the way we foxed cops and the dash for safety are still etched in my memory. Today, all seems worth it,” he said.