Arguably, the addition of highly respected spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to the tools available with India’s establishment to help resolve the simmering Babri Mosque-Ram Janambhomi dispute that is fraught with the prospects of India’s Balkanization was the most profound development that took place following Supreme Court of India’s directions to the warring parties to the case to work out an out-of-court settlement instead of waiting for a decision from the apex court. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on March 14. Regardless of the court’s decision, India awaits massive bloodshed. Sri Sri, however, has failed to deliver. In other words, the parties to the case have failed him. That is why a highly frustrated Shankar has spoken his mind: he has warned of a bloody civil war in India if the issue is not resolved “amicably”. Indian Express newspaper has quoted Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as urging the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to consider an out-of-court settlement to the case, warning that if the matter was not resolved amicably without the court’s intervention the country may face a “large-scale” communal flare up. He wrote an ‘open letter’ to the AIMPLB members saying going through the court was a loss for both Hindus and Muslims and an out-of-court settlement would be a “win-win situation” for both the communities. In the letter, he has four possible situations to the AIMPLB — the court giving away the land to the Muslims, awarding the land to the Hindus, upholding the Allahabad High Court order that says there should be a mosque built on one acre whilst the remaining 60 acres be utilised to build the temple and Parliament passing a legislation. “In all the four options, either through the court or through the government, the result will be devastating for the nation in general and the Muslim community in particular,” he has pointed out. According to him, the best solution will be an out-of-court settlement, in which the Muslim bodies come forward and gift one acre of land to the Hindus, who, in turn, would gift five acres of land nearby to the Muslims to build a bigger mosque. He also told the AIMPLB leaders that Islam permitted the shifting of the mosque to another location and that Maulana Salman Nadvi and many other Muslim scholars had endorsed it. Sri Sri has also said: “Muslims are not surrendering this land to the people who demolished the Babri Masjid or to a particular organisation. On the contrary, they are gifting it to the people of India. They must keep this in their minds and spirit. It is only reconciliation and an expression of their broad-mindedness, benevolence, magnanimity and goodwill.”

The situation, however, raises a critical question: Who is responsible for this sorry state of affairs? It is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is vigorously pursuing an agenda of divisive politics under the garb of “majority is priority” slogan, alienating all minorities, particularly Muslims. The BJP, for example, had promised to build Ram Mandir when it went to the electorate prior to the 2014 general elections. It chose not to do fulfil its promise, although it had formed governments at centre and in majority of states, including UP where a mahant or Hindu priest is chief minister; it did not do it in order to foment polarization and promote dissension in society, leaving the task in relation to the dispute to the apex court. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the court had advocated an out-of-court settlement. Insofar as Sri Sri’s complaints with regard to All India Muslim Personal Law Board are concerned, independent India watchers could safely conclude that he was in fact treated deceitfully and unfairly more by the BJP, the Nirmohi Akhara, the Vishnu Hindu Parishad and Mughal ‘descendant’ Prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy who lives in India’s Hyderabad than other parties to the dispute. Sri Sri is therefore required to state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.