Hindu Daily Digest - Editor's Pick: A momentous verdict

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

A special CBI court in Lucknow is set to deliver a verdict in the case of criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya on December 6. 1992. Among others, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, former Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati, and former U.P. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh are facing charges of instigating a mob of 'kar sevaks' to demolish the Mughal-era mosque.

The verdict is coming nearly a year after the Supreme Court's verdict in the Ramjanmabhoomi case, which handed over the land on which the mosque had stood for the construction of a Ram temple. In that verdict on the land dispute, the Supreme Court had stated that the act of demolishing the mosque was in violation of the law. The Supreme Court had also earlier used its extraordinary powers to reinstate the criminal conspiracy charges in the demolition case and clubbed two cases -- a case in Rae Bareilly against the leaders for making provocative speeches and one in Lucknow against 'lakhs of unknown kar sevaks' for the demolition -- and moved it to the CBI court, to ensure speedier justice.

With the BJP, whose leaders are in the dock, being in power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, there are bound to be political fallouts to the verdict. The demolition of the mosque was a watershed moment in Indian politics. The judgment day is also a moment of reckoning for various aggrieved parties, including Muslim groups. This mixture of political and social implications is what makes this story important.