After the historic verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case was delivered by the Supreme Court, Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah, Former Army Vice Chief, appeared on NDTV and said that he was disappointed that the Muslim community had not made an out of court settlement on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. According to him, that would have been in the best interests of the Muslim community, he said. “This is acceptable to us, we have got no choice,” he stated.
“Why not construct a school or a hospital on the land given to Muslims? There are already enough mosques in Ayodhya”, Lt General Zameeruddin Shah, Former Army Vice Chief
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— NDTV (@ndtv) November 9, 2019
The former Vice Chief of the Army also suggested that a school or a hospital should be built instead of a Mosque. Most significantly, however, he said that what has happened is that “Members of my community have forgotten that Courts invariably mirror the sentiments of the public. In this case, we should have seen the writing on the wall and seen that the Court will mirror the opinion of the public at large. Therefore, we should have gone in for an out of court settlement.”
The opinion of Lt Gen Zameer Uddin is at odds with reality. If courts mirrored the sentiments of the public, then the Supreme Court would have offered a verdict on this matter of critical importance long ago. However, it took decades despite the fact that the country overwhelmingly wanted the dispute to be resolved as soon as possible.
Furthermore, in the Sabarimala verdict as well, the Supreme Court did not take the sentiments of the Hindu devotees under consideration. The verdict essentially ordered the state to desecrate the Sabarimala Temple. Thus, we witnessed the Hindu population of Kerala rising in rebellion against the Secular State. They fought the CPI(M) government, which appeared adamant on desecrating the Sabarimala Temple, tooth and nail and ensured that the Court verdict was not implemented and the Temple was not desecrated despite numerous attempts.
The Supreme Court banned firecrackers during Diwali as well without taking into consideration the sentiments of the Hindu population. It did not take into consideration the numerous jobs that have been potentially lost as a consequence. As a consequence, we once again witnessed Hindus engaging in open rebellion against the Secular State by celebrating Diwali with crackers amidst much fanfare.
In Tripura, the High Court banned Pashubali at Maa Tripura Sundari Temple and other Hindu Temples despite the fact that the practice has religious sanction within Hinduism. Once again, the Court verdict did not ‘mirror the sentiments of the public’ at large. Therefore, for the former Vice Army Chief to suggest that the Supreme Court mirrored the sentiments of the public on the matter of Ram Mandir is at odds with observable reality.
Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah also said that he ‘hoped’ that the Supreme Court would ‘give teeth’ to the Places of Worship Act, 1991 which, at the moment, ‘just does not have teeth’. “I was expecting this judgment but I was hoping the Supreme Court would give teeth to this Act,” he said. But the Supreme Court has actually given teeth to the act by mentioning it in detail in the judgement. The judgement discusses the Places of Worship Act, 1991 in detail.
In the past, the former Vice Chief of the Army had claimed that lives were lost during 2002 riots because of the crucial time that was lost due to the Gujarat administration. He claimed that had Modi government provided necessary logistical support, the damage and loss to life would have been contained. His claims were invalidated in a note submitted by ACS (Home), Ashok Narayan.
As vice chancellor of AMU, Lt Gen Zameer Uddin had rejected demands of girls to access the Maulana Azad Library by reportedly saying that there would be ‘four times more boys’ in the library if girls are around. Since Times of India reported the incident, Lt. Gen. Shah banned Times of India on the campus.
