
The court accepted the government’s assurances that there will be change to the status quo and allowed a symbolic karseva.
The UP government through then CM Kalyan Singh had tendered an affidavit in July 1992 permission not to alter the status quo. The buildings on the acquired land were demolished, contending that the apex court had barred construction but not demolition. The entire area opposite the Babri masjid, a graveyard since 1855, was leveled. By late 1992, the state government began making steady progress in handing over the disputed shrine and the land around it to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP). The VHP activists had already started laying a three-tiered concrete platform but viewed it as a non- permanent structure. The state government could argue that it had not violated the High Court’s order since it had only razed structures and not erected any. In reality, though, it turned out to be a ploy to build a platform during a karseva – a campaign of service for a religious cause – launched in late July 1992.
Following the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s announcement to perform another karseva on December 6, 1992, an application was submitted to the Supreme Court, by a man named Acchan Rizvi, on November 2. It requested the court to pass orders restraining the state government and the VHP from undertaking fresh construction work on the acquired land. In response, the government told the Supreme Court that it was in negotiations with the VHP and other Hindu outfits participating in karseva to reach a settlement.
On November 28, the government told the Supreme Court it had made progress in its negotiations with the VHP. The court was also told that the “karseva would be a symbolic occasion for carrying on certain religious activities to assuage the feelings of the devotees and will not be exploited for any constructional activity, symbolic or otherwise," reported Scroll.
The court accepted the government’s assurances and allowed a symbolic karseva. On December 6, tens of thousands of karsevaks demolished the Babri Masjid. They erected a makeshift temple, thereby altering the status quo.
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