A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth

The excesses of our youth, are drafts upon our old age, 

payable with interest, about thirty years after date ... CC Colton

The Supreme Court's directive to complete the conspiracy trial against BJP leaders accused of conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid could mean the deserved denouement of Lal Krishna Advani's career. Advani's career was built on Babri Masjid, on the saugandh that a Ram Mandir would be built in its place and nowhere else. If Advani gets indicted for the demolition of the structure in Ayodhya, life would have come full circle for him.

There shouldn't be an iota of doubt that Advani, now 89 years, was the architect of the movement that led to the demolition of the disputed mosque on Dec 6, 1992. His rath yatras led to mass hysteria that mobilised thousands of youth for the sectarian movement. It is for the courts to decide if Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and other BJP leaders accused in the case actually conspired to get the structure razed or not. But, none of them can escape the moral and political responsibility of their failure to control the monster they unleashed on India and in Ayodhya.

Advani has always denied that he was aware of plans to forcibly demolish the structure. He has claimed that the sight of lumpen kar sevaks pulling the structure brought tears to his eyes. Other versions suggest that they are in fact tears of joy when their conspiracy came to fruition on Dec 6, 1992. Advani played up the kamandal card ruthlessly throughout the tumultuous period between 1989 and 1992. He was single-handedly responsible for taking the BJP from 2 seats in 1984 to 117 in 1991 and his ambition to become the prime minister is clear.

For the BJP, the SC order could be a blessing in disguise. To the party it could mean an opportunity to keep the Hindutva pot boiling and serving the Ram Mandir issue hot in the 2019 elections. The trial is bound to get a lot of attention and in the end turn out a PR heist for the Hindutva brigade. In the dusk of his life, he could become the rath on which his party could ride to the next electoral victory. Just that, like in the 90s, he might not be the beneficiary of his final yatra, either to jail (if he is indicted) or to freedom (if he is found not guilty). Wouldn't that be adequate punishment for Advani's karma that led to the bloodshed every time he roared: Saugandh Ram ki khaate hain, mandir wahin banayenge?

A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth ... Maurice Chevalier

My View:
The fact that BJP etc have given written assurances that they would not demolish Babri Masjid for obtaining permission to conclude 'Rath Yatra' in Ayodhya and failed is one aspect. The other aspect is that gigantic structure demolition and removing debris using construction equipment would have taken few days where as 'Kar Sevaks' using hand tools only have demolished the structure, cleared debris and installed make shift 'Ram Mandir' in flat 6 hours, without any causalities, indicates the well designed, equipped and rehearsaled conspiracy, with secrecy well maintained, speaks volumes about the criminality of the issue for which LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and other BJP leaders can't be absolved of their crime and must be punished. However after 25 years, mobilising witnesses for their trial is no easy task for CBI and with Modi & BJP in power at Centre and also in UP, it is quite possible that the trial will end up as a farce. However Advani will go down in history as destroyer of Babri Masjid and pushing secularism into peril and paving way for Hindutva, much to the discomfort of minorities.

Post independence in India, Hindu population is growing arithmetically where as Muslim population is growing geometrically and by 2051/61 Muslim population will surpass Hindu population in India. Then what?