Ramjanmabhumi: Hinduizing Politics and Militarizing Hindudom 139the political wing, the BJP kept the dialogue open with the government for
negotiations, retreating whenever necessary. The cultural wing, the RSS,
kept directing the campaign with unmitigated communal fervor. The reli-
gious wing, the VHP, Bajrang Dal, and the sadhus (religious figures), were
ever ready for action. Together they utilized every medium of expression
to their advantage: "the court as a delaying tactics; the media through
demonstrative actions that hit the headlines; and of course the political
platform for negotiations bypassing all political parties including the Con-
gress and even Parliament All the time the fire was kept burning with
the fuel of religious symbols and myths."^95 As the Congress government
of P. V. Narasimha Rao, a Brahmin from southern India, found the Ram-
janmabhumi campaign a convenient cover to hide its liberalization policy
debacles, the upper-caste-controlled media played up the anti-Mandal
agitations and tacitly supported the Hindutva politics by downplaying
the communal riots. The inefficiency of other government agencies, such
as the ASI, could be seen in the fact that there was no discussion anywhere
if the karsevaks and others found any evidence or remains of the "old
Ram temple" when they demolished the mosque. And no one ever asked
how the Sangh Parivar and the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee
(AIBMAC) could be the custodians of the eleventh-century temple and
sixteenth-century mosque and could negotiate on behalf of all Hindus and
Muslims in India.
The Babri Masjid was razed to the ground by the karsevaks in full view
of the top brass of the BJP-VHP-RSS. Operation Demolition commenced
at 11:50 A.M. on December 6,1992, and lasted nearly six hours. The lead-
ers addressed the crowd in a massive public meeting that was under way
some 300 yards away from the mosque. The Supreme Court observer, Tej
Shankar, "could not be traced in the vicinity of the complex."^96 The district
magistrate of Faizabad, R. N. Shrivastava, evaded questions from journal-
ists and later turned the Rapid Action Force of the Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) back by saying that the chief minister of the state, Kalyan
Singh of the BJP, had rejected the idea of deploying Central forces. Having
made a token attempt to stop the karsevaks, the CRPF withdrew from their
positions. The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and the local police
watched silently as milling crowds barged into the complex chanting, "Jai
Shri Ram." According to one report, "the euphoric crowd dashed into the
structure from all sides with shovels, axes and whatever they could man-
age As the first batch of volunteers who had climbed on to the domes
struck them with shovels the whole atmosphere got electrified with slo-
gans of establishment of a Hindu rashtra."^97
The semantic field in which the mosque demolition can be deciphered
is quite broad, and the interpretations range from innocent mob theory
to conspiratorial communal ignominy. For obvious reasons, the major-
ity-minority theory has gained wide currency. Hindutva forces argue that
the minorities are given too much leverage in the society and enjoy too