The Ajmer civil court has, advertently or inadvertently, set in motion a controversy whose ramifications are impossible to predict. Whether the judge concerned, Manmohan Chandel, had weighed the pros and cons of his decision to accept a petition filed on behalf of the Hindu Sena questioning the status of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer district of Rajasthan remains to be seen. He has issued notices to the Ajmer Dargah Committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India, asking for their versions to be heard on December 20. The petitioner has contended that a Sankat Mochan Mahadev temple exists beneath the Dargah, which attracts millions of pilgrims from across India and abroad. For greater effect, it also claims that a Jain temple pre-existed there. To substantiate these assertions, the petition quotes a 1911 book.
As the Urs festival, for which the Ajmer Dargah is famous, approaches, the case has caused tension and raised fears about how the matter will unfold in the future. The country has recently witnessed how an ex-parte decision by a district judge to order a survey of the Jama Masjid at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh sparked violence. The mosque, which traces its construction to the Mughal period, is protected under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904 and falls under the ASI’s purview. Its status was also frozen by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits altering the status of all religious structures as they stood on August 15, 1947. The only exceptions are the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, the Gyanvapi Mosque at Varanasi, and the Shahi Idgah Mosque at Mathura. However, this does not mean that new demands can be made regarding even these structures.
Alas, a 2022 decision by the Supreme Court, headed by the then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, diluted the Places of Worship Act, 1991, by ruling that an inquiry could be conducted into the status of any disputed structure. Little did the court realise that it was opening the floodgates to such cases. The judges in Sambhal and Ajmer would not have acted on the petitions before them if the apex court had exercised greater caution in showing such laxity. As things stand, anyone can now file a complaint claiming that a mosque is built on the debris of a temple and request the ASI to verify the claim. Even monuments like the Taj and Qutub Minar face similar claims.
The petitioner has contended that a Sankat Mochan Mahadev temple exists beneath the Dargah.
The fence eats the crop
In a higher secondary school, the principal is the supreme academic and administrative authority. The headmaster, who heads all sections from Class 1 to 10, assists the principal in the discharge of his duties. This itself shows how important a role they together play in a school. In the Janakpur police station area of Chhattisgarh, the principal, headmaster and a lecturer of a higher secondary school enticed a 17-year-old girl student of Class 11 to the home of one of them, where they gang-raped her on November 15. They also took photographs to blackmail her. A week later, one of them forced her to go to the house of a deputy ranger where they, again, gang-raped her. In desperation, she told her mother and she filed a case in this regard. The four have been suspended from their jobs and they are now in police custody.
Most people would find it difficult to believe that a 55-year-old principal of a school would stoop to such a low level to satiate his carnal desires and that, too, on a student, whose protection is his primary duty. When the principal is such a character, nothing better could be expected from the headmaster and the lecturer. The case has shocked the whole nation. The Chhattisgarh government should set up a fast-track court to hear the case as quickly as possible and punish them. They do not deserve any leniency. In fact, they deserve the highest punishment for gang-rape. They have forfeited all their right to live in a civilised society as their behaviour was worse than that of the animals which, by the way, do not rape, let alone gang-rape. Let the severest punishment they get be a warning to all those who think that they can get away with rape.
