The Ayodhya File!

The suspense was more unbearable than in an Ind-Pak one day international cricket match. The wait was agonizing fraught with apprehension. Some sources reported that millions of bucks exchanged hands on betting over the verdict!

Our newsroom, maybe many more all over India, was crowded with eager staff, and editors trying to get the details for the coming bulletin. There was din in the TV monitors and pin drop silence in the usually noisy newsroom. Nobody wanted to wait any longer. Out with it and end it all!

For over sixty years the Ayodhya Temple-Mosque issue continued unabated with the bloody riots in 1992-93--a languishing scar that anyone would ever be able to forget or forgive. Nobody wanted a repeat of that.

It started at the appointed 3.30pm and by 4.45pm bits and pieces were coming in. The announced websites refused to open all the time. At last, the three judge Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court delivered justice.

A verdict that could not afford to please or hurt any party too much.The three parties got three parts of the disputed site at Ayodhya. All the parties seemed to be accepting it, but two parties later announced decision to appeal in the Supreme Court.

The Indian Union and state governments' intense efforts to maintain peace paid off with no untoward incident reported from any quarters. The bubbly city of Mumbai wore a deserted look in the evening with empty streets, buses and railway stations. Only natural. Who could ever forget the killings, arson and bomb blasts in this very city, January-March, 1993.

Though litigation is bound to go on, let's hope that the Ayodhya File is finally closed.