Where are non-political leaders, history will certainly grill them for Ayodhya !

Sushant Jha

( Writer is a Delhi based journalist and ex-student of IIMC)

The verdict on Ayodhya dispute is scheduled to come tomorrow but any ruling of the court is certainly to be challenged in Supreme Court by either side that looses it. The political leadership in this country has failed to resolve this issue since independence. But we are surprised to see the calculated silence of leaders in other field. Though, Ayodhya dispute no longer seems much explosive as it happened to be in late 80s or early 90s, but it has immense hidden capacity to inflame the whole nation given its sensitivity. 

Ex Prez. Abdul Kalaam

Unfortunately, we don’t have leaders like Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Ambedkar who once solved the Dalit issue amicably and whole nation accepted it. Those days were not the days of information or literacy; even then the feudal and Brahminical Hindu society accepted what Gandhi promised Ambedkar in that talk. Again, the second issue of socio-politico nature was that of OBC reservation which was peacefully (amid some disturbance in north India) solved by Parliament and the Supreme Court. But today, there is a dearth of such mass leaders and complete lack of political consensus that we can even come to any amicable conclusion vis-à-vis this dispute.

Sri Sri Ravi Shanker

But sometimes I feel that some people in our country are surely respected for their work and integrity in every community and show non-partisan attitude towards issues. Why they don’t come out and sit together to contribute their moral authority? We have Dr Kalam, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Gulzar, Narayan Murthy and Ratan Tata who might contribute and prove more useful in this painful event of history. Some may raise a question that they might be titans in their respective fields but they will prove a disaster in this dispute. But I will suggest that we have tried everything, our political class, our religious leaders and even our judiciary for that sake for more than half century. So why not have a bet on leaders of other sector, who are more acceptable to people?

Secondly, these leaders will have chance to taste their real moral authority across the masses. There is huge opportunity hidden in this dispute, a person or a group of persons who comes to even a distant solution of this problem, will be a second Gandhi in this country.

And if they shy away in this crucial juncture as they are doing now, history will certainly ask them the unpleasant question; what were you doing when the whole country was troubled and life of over a billion people were in constant tension?  Is it not a similar case of Nero playing flute while Rome burnt?