Law Kumar Mishra
On December 7,1992, after the Kar Sewaks had allegedly demolished the Babri structure at Ayodhya, Patna with fairly large population of Muslims on the western part-Phulwarisharif and eastern end Khusrupur remained calm.
Historic Mahavir Mandir and Jama Masjid in central Patna are neighbours for centuries. None affected by Ayodhya incident.
As a reporter of The Times of India, i visited the CM House at 1, Anney Marg near Raj Bhawan. The main entrance was open and with the photographer, Mohan Sharma entered the bungalow .On the ground floor, Mukul Kapoor, personal assistant of CM was present. He guided us to the first floor bed room of Lalu Prasad Yadav. There was no leader or officer in the House.
Lalu ji in his dhoti as make shift Lungi was on the bed. He greeted us and claimed he was keeping a watch on the situation throughout the night, could not sleep. Now, it was 3 p m and CM came out of the bed room to take a tooth brush. After cleaning teeth, he obliged the photographer by repeating the action before a mirror.
He offered us tea. He asked Mrs Rabri Devi to bring the red cloth covered*potli* . He opened the potli and took out some stones and debris and told us “Motka ( Mr Nawin Kishore Sinha, BJP legislator from West Patna), Phulwari Sharif station par pakdaya hai, Babri se tuta hua pathar lekar aa raha tha. Danga failata, Ashok Rajpath par Sabjibagh aur Sultanganj ke chaurahe par ie sab ko rakhta aur log mutate “. His wife and children were also watching the display of stone, they too started giggling when CM said log mutate.
Chief minister later changed to his usual kurta and pyjama, came down and directed the driver to take him to Patna City. His task “dekhna hai, Raj Paat thik se chal raha hai na”. He reached Khanjekalan police station in eastern Patna. DM and SSP were present. But, an young IAS officer who was SDM could not reach before CM. When he arrived, CM gave him. the treatment which an errant student is given by his class teacher.
While. Chief minister was engaged in talking to his officers, Managing trustee of Mahavir Mandir and senior IPS officer, Kishore Kunal, who was OSD on Ayodhaya, telephoned Naresh Chandra in PMO to know the reaction of Mr P V Narsimha Rao. He was told, “sab Hanuman ji kripa.”
Chairman of Bihar state minorities commission, Prof Jabir Hussain, was visibly disturbed with the developments and regretted the UP government could not honour it’s commitment made to the Supreme Court. Except for communal violence in Sitamarhi, state remained peaceful.
A week later, Bennett and Coleman chairman, Ashok Kumar Jain convened a conference of state correspondents of the Times of India in New Delhi where compliments were exchanged for restrained reporting. M G Gupta, a school days friend of Jain who was TOI correspondent at Ayodhya was specially invited and he was the only person in the Hall who addressed chairman as Ashok, others addressed him as Ashok ji.
I was summoned as CBI prosecution witness at special court on Ayodhya at Lucknow. Lawyers representing L K Advani and Uma Bharti grilled me and denied any conspiracy behind the demolition. As expected, the special court freed all, as there was no evidence to suggest who demolished the controversial structure.
Soon, honourable special judge became Uplokayukta.
(The author is a senior journalist based at Patna in Bihar)
