After the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya in December 1992, Hindutva activists adopted a new slogan: “Ayodhya to sirf jhanki hai, Kashi aur Mathura baaki hai.” Ayodhya is just a teaser. Kashi and Mathura are left.
After the Supreme Court in November allowed Hindus to begin constructing a Ram temple on the site on which the Babri Masjid had stood, many feared that this would embolden the calls for similar campaigns against mosques in Kashi and Mathura.
Last week, as if on cue, a civil suit was filed in a Mathura court seeking to reclaim a site that was described as the birthplace of Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu. The plaint alleges that the Mughal emperor Aurangazeb destroyed part of the temple that marked the Krishna janmasthan. The Idgah mosque now stands there.
It wants the mosque, which stands next to the Krishna Janmasthan temple, to be removed….