By S.N. Sahu
It is quite perplexing that a 12-page report prepared by Jawaharlal Nehru 100 years back on September 12, 1924, on the Hindu-Muslim trouble which occurred during the Mohurrum procession at Sambhal was recently presented on several ‘Godi’ media channels by distorting its contents.
That report was prepared on the instructions of Mahatma Gandhi and submitted to him by Nehru.
The deliberate misrepresentation of that report after 100 years was done to justify Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s support to some Hindu leaders moving a local court in November 2024 for a survey of the 500-year-old Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal built on a ground which had ruins of a Hindu temple allegedly demolished during the Mughal period.
It is worthwhile to recall that the said local court very inexplicably gave an ex parte order on November 19, 2024, for survey without hearing the respondents representing the mosque, and the same day the Adityanath’s administrative apparatus with unprecedented alacrity went ahead for a survey with heavy police protection.
The court order did not take into account the Places of Religious Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits any alteration of the shrines as it existed on August 15, 1947. While the survey was done without any untoward incident, the local administration very strangely came forward to do a second survey in the early morning of November 24, 2024, accompanied by people shouting the “Jai Shree Ram” slogan.
Muslims gathered to protest against the abrupt second survey without giving any notice and five of them lost their lives allegedly due to police firing.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
