Rajiv Lochan

After thousands of years Ram’s trip back home from his victory in Sri Lanka would be celebrated in the town of Ayodhya on the banks of the river Sarayu. Diwali, the festival of lights, which is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India, finally comes home to Ayodhya. It is the day when Ram is said to have reached home, along with his wife Sita and his brother Laxman and his trusted bhakt Hanuman, after his victory against Ravan.

This became possible because of the Ayodhya verdict which also laid to rest the Two-Nation Theory which had been brought to life in recent years. The TnT and its supporters were made irrelevant once again in India by the court verdict. The TnT people, the supporters of the Two Nation Theory, had the option of going to Pakistan. Their desire to promote a Muslim Nation in India was quashed.

The Two Nation-Theory was responsible for the creation of Pakistan. Leaders like Jinnah, Salman Taseer, Indira Gandhi and other seculars, while practising secularism in their own life, firmly believed that there was no way in which the people of the Islamic faith could receive any justice in India. Under the benign gaze of the Indian National Congress, the advocates of the Two Nation Theory had been nurtured carefully with the objective of creating a Muslim vote bank for the Congress.

Modi’s victory in 2014 gave a lie to the Muslim vote bank theory. The decision by judges Gogoi, Bobde, Chandrachud, Abdul Nazeer, and Ashok Bhushan gave a final rest to this pernicious Two-Nation Theory.

Rajiv Lochan, the author, is a renowned scholar, author and historian