From Nation of Donkeys to 'Black Day for Democracy': English Editorials Slam Babri Verdict

A day after a special CBI court in Lucknow acquitted all 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, including former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, former Union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, newspaper editorials expressed concern over the judgement and pushed the CBI to challenge the verdict.

On Wednesday, the special court judge said that the demolition was not pre-planned and that the accused were “trying to stop the mob and not incite them”. He added that there was not enough evidence against the accused and that the court could not probe the authenticity of the audio and video evidence provided by the CBI.

The Telegraph in Kolkata, long since the paper with the eyeball-grabbing headlines, led with a half-page image of a donkey with the legend, “If we’re indeed shocked, this is what we are.”

The front page report, a full page of coverage on the verdict and the commentary on the editorial pages all constituted strong criticism of the judgment.

The Times of India, the largest English newspaper in circulation in India, in an editorial published on Thursday held that the failure to uncover the “serious violation” of 1992 was “a black day for Indian democracy”.

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Adding that the country’s track record of prosecuting communal riots was “abysmal” and that riot leaders were “rarely” brought to justice, the editorial maintained that the CBI’s prosecution in the demolition case “fell flat” and that the probe agency must “examine its failure to prove documentary evidence”.

Making note of the prolonged duration it took for “the wheels of justice to turn” in India, it added that the apex court must review the “unacceptably long procedural delays that plague important cases”. “Such a lengthy course doesn’t bode well for the rule of law,” the editorial said.