THE PANDORA'S BOX UNDER THE SHRINE

The Mahakumbh has presently taken centrestage in the media narrative, so the right buttons are being pressed when it comes to keeping alive a saturation Hindu presence in the social space.

- By Avaneesh Mishra

But the more conflictual elements of religious politics may be in only for a short hibernation. The controversy surrounding the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal—the western Uttar Pradesh town wracked by violence in late November, with four people killed in clashes with the police—is far from a closed chapter. As the new year dawned, the courts applied the brakes on the controversy, which till then seemed to have taken on a momentum of its own. But with a constitutional law up for question, and a bristling sheaf of legal disputes on the anvil, all signs are that the game of wits between judicial principles and political ideas will resume in the near future.

One sign came from UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. His rhetorical pitch recalled a formula for rapprochement that had once been suggested for Ayodhya, laced with his trademark punch. On January 10, he said the Muslim community should—“in the most respectful manner”—voluntarily hand over the Sambhal site to Hindus if evidence establishes that it was built on the remains of a 16th century Kalki temple. Speaking at an India Today Group event in Prayagraj on the sidelines of the Kumbh, he also said no “disputed structure” should be referred to as a mosque. “The day we stop calling such places mosques, people will also stop going there. Islam does not sanction the building of worship structures on sites that hurt the faith of others,” he said.