Justice UP Style: Top Cop Takes Pledge to Build Ram Mandir On Eve of SC Hearing, IPS Association Says 'Not Our Ethos'

LUCKNOW: How can there be justice in Uttar Pradesh when a senior police officer Surya Kumar Shukla violates the tenets of the Constitution and the law, to take an oath to build the Ram Mandir even as the matter is still to be decided upon by the Supreme Court of India?

In a video being widely shared, a senior police officer pedges with raised hand to build the Ram Mandi in Ayodhya at a function held in Lucknow University.

"We, Ram bhakts, in this programme, pledge that a grand Ram temple will be built soonest. Jai Sri Ram," says the cop along with the the men present at the function. He is of the 1982 IPS batch and is seen in the video to the left of the man who administers the pledge, wearing a grey jacket.

The IPS Association has responded with a tweet disassociating itself from the cop’s action by maintaining that this was not in line with the ethos that the Indian Police Service.” We disassociate ourselves from the act of a senior #IPS officer as shown in the video & reiterate that it is against the ethos of neutrality, fairness and uprightness that Indian Police Service stands for.” the tweet reads.

As always there is retraction after the video went viral. Shukla now claims, "I was taking a pledge to create an atmosphere of harmony. The video that has gone viral is an edited version and portions have been deleted deliberately to create mischief. The matter related more to creating a peaceful environment for the construction of the temple rather than construction itself."

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the controversial and highly sensitive case to decide whether the Ram temple can be built at the site where the Babri mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992 as per the demand and agenda of right wing groups, including the ruling BJP. The Chief Justice of India has constituted a three member Bench, that he heads to begin what are the final hearings on the case. A plea by advocates Kapil Sibal and others in December last year to postpone the hearings of the case to after the 2019 elections was rejected by the Bench. Daily hearings will be held by the Court, wth the case expected to have a major bearing on the Lok Sabha polls.

In a verdict that has been challenged since, the Allahahabd High Court had devided the site into three parts, allocating one each to the Hindu group Nirmohi Akhara, the Ram Lalla or infant Lord Ram represented by the Hindu Mahasabha, and the Sunni Waqf Board which handles properties owned by Sunni Muslims.