The 30th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid falls on Tuesday but the darkest chapter in independent India is being marked not by contrition but by signs of unsatiated appetite.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has demanded that it be allowed to conduct Hindu rituals in the 16th-century Baba Budangiri Sufi shrine in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, as part of the three-day Datta Jayanti celebrations starting Tuesday.
Until now, the rituals associated with the event used to take place in a structure a short distance from the shrine but within the compound.
The VHP wants to move the rituals closer to the Sufi shrine.
In the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition, the cave shrine came to be known as “Ayodhya of the South” because of the disputes and litigation swirling around it.
The shrine is eponymous with Baba Budan, a Sufi saint who is believed to have started the coffee culture in India by bringing seeds from Yemen.
Chikkamagaluru is one of the richest coffee-growing areas in the country. But the Sufi shrine got pitchforked into a controversy in the 1990s when the Sangh parivar launched a campaign on the lines of Ayodhya, staking exclusive claim to the shrine.
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com . Read the full story here
