Delhi University Professor Apoorvanand said that BJP Veteran LK Advani who led the largest and longest planned hate campaign against Muslims is hailed in India as a statesman.
Taking it to Twitter, Apoorvanand tweeted, “Saw ‘gentlemen’ congratulating a man with blood on his hands of thousands of Muslims on his birthday. It shows the moral perversity of the elite of India.”
“A man who should have been in jail at the very least for what he did is receiving bouquets,” he said refering to the campaign by the then Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, including the Ram Rath Yatra.
“People have lamented that the man was cheated by his disciple who stopped from reaching the highest office of the land. It is pathetic to see our honorable men treating him with veneration. There is hole in our sole,”
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the BJP organised a rally on 6 December 1992, which had 150,000 volunteers, known as kar sevaks. The rally turned violent, and the crowd overwhelmed security forces and tore down the mosque. According to probe reports, 68 people were responsible, including several leaders of the BJP and the VHP. The demolition of Babri Masjid resulted in several months of intercommunal rioting between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities, in which nearly 2,000 people were dead
“A man who led the largest and longest planned hate campaign against Muslims is hailed in India as a statesman. We can imagine why hatred and violence against Muslims do not stir their souls,” said the DU Professor.
“The man, old and infirm he might have become, Apoorvanand said adding, “Is responsible for making secularism, the most beautiful concept binding India together, a word to be shunned is hailed as a civilized man.”
Although Prof Apoorvanand didn’t directly call out his name, but his tweeted directly referred to LK Advani, who was a senior Bhartiya Janata Party leader.
“He is cruel, he actively propagated violence but is a coward of the first order. Never took responsibility of what he had done.”
“With age the crime does not fade. We, the ordinary people must remember that. Despite our ‘Mahajans’ losing their moral compass. The man ,we must repeat is guilty of an act of crime against humanity. Should go down in history as one,” Apoorvanand added.
It also forces us to think about ourselves, he said adding, “Why do not we treat hatred and violence against ‘others’ as non-negotiables.”
“We know he would not be punished. But we need to keep repeating that a high criminal lived his life while ensuring that thousands of lives were cut down. We must not let it slip out of the memory of the ‘nation’.”
The principal architect of the BJP’s rise as a major national political party was with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the late 80s, when Advani crafted and shaped the Hindutva politics.
“Birthdays remind us that one is not born a criminal. There are people born as humans who work hard,with conviction to lose that humanity to turn into a criminal. Their birthdays should be occasions to remind them that they not only forsook humanity ,they murdered the most noble.”
BJP veterans L K Advani along with M M Joshi, and Uma Bharti were accused of being involved in the demolition of the mosque. However they were acquitted in 2020.
“This is supreme murder. He also led many unsuspected on the path of hate and murder. He robbed them of their humanity as well. Another crime. If we live on the birthdays of such criminals, we need to remind ourselves of all of this,” said Professor Apoorvanand.
“We cannot be seen as adoring one, who( to use the words of the great writer Lu Xun) tried to turn Hindus into man eaters.Alas! We donot mind man eaters being learders.The writer had asked us to ensure that there would be no place for man-eaters in our society.Too much to expect?”