“Meet the mastermind of the Ayodhya demolition.”

Koenraad Elst, a western scholar who has had extensive contacts with the Hindu nationalist milieu going back to the 1980's, states in a new post on his blog that the 1992 destruction of the Babri Masjid was "pre-planned", which he states flatly "has always been obvious". Elst also writes that he has talked personally to "members of the demolition vanguard" who described to him their training and even the tools that they brought with them on the appointed day. But the most fascinating thing of all is what Elst writes next:

They also mentioned the name of the mastermind of the whole operation; it was not Advani nor A.B. Vajpayee. Which brings us to the most startling fact of the demolition’s aftermath: the total refusal of the Indian media to investigate the details. Collectively, they spurned the scoop of the decade, viz. a cover picture with the caption: “Meet the mastermind of the Ayodhya demolition.” The reason is that they found it more expedient to blame Advani and barred themselves from publishing or indeed finding anything that might disturb this story-line.

Go to Elst's blog to read the whole post here.

What Elst is saying now is not new. In 1996 he wrote almost precisely the same words (see this previous post in my blog, and links and references contained therein).

The only thing to add to this is that Elst is hardly an unknown figure. He has published multiple books on the subject of Ayodhya, and he has a blog in English that anyone can find easily if they really want to hear both sides of the issue (or at least more than one side). And yet the western media simply follows the lead of the breathtakingly incurious Indian media. The truth is out there. In fact, it is staring you in the face. All you have to do is open your eyes.