The country became independent on 15 August 1947.
The Constitution of the country was just being made and meanwhile the dispute over Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya started increasing again.
The British government could not reach any concrete conclusion in this matter. By 1949, this issue gained momentum and started on the political path.
In the next year of independence i.e. 1948, by-elections were to be held on 13 assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh. u
At that time, Congress was in power at the Center and Uttar Pradesh. In fact, the socialist camp within the Congress had split. The Congress Socialist Party, formed in 1934, had now decided on a different path.
Ram Manohar Lohia and Acharya Narendra Dev were included in that socialist party. When tension increased between the two factions of Congress, 13 MLAs of the Socialist faction resigned.
Faizabad MLA Acharya Narendra Dev was also included among them. When by-elections were held on this seat, the Socialist Party again fielded Acharya Narendra Dev as its candidate, while the Congress fielded Baba Raghavdas in front of him.
Baba Raghav Das was a great leader of the Sant Samaj. It is said that Congress had used the name of Ram in politics for the first time. In that election, Baba Raghavdas had announced that he would liberate Ram Janmabhoomi from the opponents.
His words had an impact on the voters and he won the by-election. That means the magic of Ram’s name worked in the elections. Baba Raghavdas won by 1312 votes.
As soon as Baba Raghavdas won the by-election, the morale of the Hindu community in Ayodhya became high. Now the issue of Ram Janmabhoomi had become political, whereas earlier it was a legal issue which was being fought in the courts.
Baba Raghavdas wrote a letter to the UP government in 1949 asking for permission to build a temple there. Kehar Singh, Deputy Secretary of the UP Government, wrote a letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Faizabad on 20 July 1949 asking whether the disputed land belonged to Nazul or the municipality.
In October, the city magistrate reported to the DC that there was a small temple next to the mosque at the site. Considering it to be the birthplace of Hindu Ram, they want to build a big Ram temple there.
The City Magistrate recommended that this land belonged to Nazul and permission for the construction of the temple could be given.
Earlier, the Waqf Inspector had issued a report on 10 December 1948, in which it was said that the saints of Hindu society were reciting Ramayana by cleaning the tombs and tombs and wanted to take over the Babri structure.
On the initiative of Baba Raghav Das, on 24 November 1949, Hindu saints cleaned the graveyard near Babri Masjid and started reciting Ramayana there. Due to this the crowd started increasing there. Seeing the fight escalating, the police were called. Then the administration built a police post there and deployed PAC.
28 days after this incident, on the intervening night of 22-23 December, 1949, the Ramjanmabhoomi dispute took a new form. That night some people climbed the wall and placed the idols of Ram, Janaki and Lakshman in the mosque.
Hindu organizations claimed this incident by saying that Lord Ram himself appeared and gave the message that this is his birthplace and he wants to take it back.
The Muslim community opposed this and filed a case against 50-60 unknown people including Abhiram Das.
The news of the mysterious discovery of the idol in the mosque spread like wildfire across the country. Its heat was visible till Delhi. According to a BBC report, three days after this incident i.e. on December 26, 1949, Pandit Nehru sent a telegram to the then Chief Minister GB Pant, in which he said, “I am deeply disturbed by the incident in Ayodhya. I am confident that you will take personal interest in this matter. A dangerous precedent is being set, which will have bad consequences.”
After this, the Chief Secretary of the state summoned the Faizabad Commissioner to Lucknow and scolded him as to why this incident was not stopped and why the statues were not removed again in the morning. On December 29, Faizabad Court ordered attachment under Section 145 of CrPC and ordered locking of the Babri complex.
However, the court appointed Priyadutt Ram as receiver for the worship and care of the idol of Ramlala.
Taking action on the Prime Minister’s message, Govind Vallabh Pant had directed the Faizabad DM to remove the statue, but the then DM KK Nair had refused to do so and had argued that removing the statue would lead to chaos.
Seeing no action being taken, Pandit Nehru asked Home Minister Sardar Patel to look into the matter. Then Patel also wrote a letter to the CM. When Pant again put pressure on the DM, DM Nair resigned from his post.
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