To Demolish Gyanvapi, A Deluge Of Copy-Paste Petitions Aims To Overwhelm Muslim Defendants & India’s Judiciary

While the petition of five Hindu women from Varanasi triggered a month of frenzied media coverage, the Hindu right has over the past year quietly built a well-oiled litigation machine to churn out identically-worded suits against the Gyanvapi mosque, meant to overwhelm Muslim defendants, pressurise the judiciary to place faith over law, keep the media attentive and destablise the syncretic nature of Hinduism’s holiest city. There are now 12 similar claims on mosques and Islamic-era monuments in at least four states.