IAS Officer Recalls 'Celebrating' Babri Masjid Demolition (image: facebook.com/manisha.mhaiskar.52)As the Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Ayodhya’s Ram Temple on Monday, a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer’s Facebook post on celebrating Babri Masjid demolition in1992 is getting attention. Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar, currently Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Secretary (Public Works Department), in her long post on Sunday detailed how she and her other trainee colleagues has celebrated the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
She began her post with the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” and wrote “Life comes a full circle” referring to inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on the razed mosque site.
“Life comes a full circle and … How !!! 6th December 1992 was a very cold day in Mussoorie. 1992 Batch of IAS were at their Foundation Course. News was slowly trickling in of the seminal developments at the Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya. A very spontaneous meeting had got organised but very discreetly, by invitation only,” she wrote.
She then added that her strong Nagpur roots, alluding to her Hindutva allegiance, was considered good enough for an invitation. “At the meeting venue some probationers were chanting Jai Shri Ram, pedas were being distributed… I remember eating one full Kesar pedha and at that moment on the very cold night of 6th December 1992, I knew that the happenings at Ayodhya were the beginning of something very positive, very powerful, very auspicious,” she added.
IAS Officer said that news of distributing sweets and their celebration got leaked, and notices were issued for them. The incident got reported on the front page of a major newspaper.
“1992 batch was termed disappointing, comprising mainly of easily excitable small towners – whatever had happened to the posh , smart, privileged kids of the Lutyens and such like ? Whatever is happening to Secularism? they said,” she wrote in the post.
Continuing further, she said that though life continued “with all its vicissitudes”, she held the staunch belief that sweet she had eaten on the December 6 night was the beginning of “something powerful, something positive, something auspicious”.
Before concluding the post, Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar added that on the eve of consecration ceremony she has eaten another ‘kesari pedha’ (a sweet served during celebratory and auspicious moments) and “remembered the seminal 6th December moment and the very positive, auspicious powerful feeling it had invoked.”
Along with the post, she has shared a photo where she is seen feeding sweets to her husband, Milind Mhaiskar, who is also an IAS official.