INDIAN SUPREME COURT AND AYODHYA

On Monday the Indian Supreme Court acted to preserve the status quo at Ayodhya for now, effectively preventing the ruling BJP from allowing fundamentalist Hindus to begin construction of a temple to Ram on the disputed site. Read the ruling here. Read the Times of India article here (they seem to have resolved the web problems that plagued them a few weeks ago). The ruling BJP was not happy with the court's decision, while the opposition Congress party and the ToI editorial board both expressed some satisfaction. The editorial is particularly interesting for its praise of the Court's avoidance of narrow legalities in favor of the broader political view announced in the ruling: the Court was explicitly concerned with "maintain[ing] communal harmony." The Indian SC is willing to approach its task in a broadly political way. More could be said about this, of course. . .

READ ALSO Dawn's editorial, which has a good, punchy overview of the entire issue. The money lines:

Clearly, Mr Vajpayee was ill-advised by the hawks within the party yet again, when he approved the government's decision to move the supreme court. This was done to circumvent an earlier high court order and to pre-empt the imminent final decision by the Allahabad High Court, which would settle the dispute once and for all.

Following the supreme court's decision on Monday, it is now New Delhi's responsibility to rein in the Hindu extremists, who have threatened to go ahead with building the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Over 2,000 lives were lost in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid by Hindu extremists in 1992. New Delhi must do all it can to avert a repeat of the 1992 carnage.