When a Nagaland CM offered a creative solution to the Ayodhya crisis three decades ago

Looking back on Vamuzo Phesao’s fully-lived life, one thinks of the issues of politics, history and economics that engrossed his mind and heart. They concerned him so much that he relentlessly fought for them.
As the ecstatic triumphalism of the vast majority of Indians shocks the minorities following the Supreme Court’s judgment, I am recalling a highly creative idea Vamuzo took to Delhi on his first visit to the capital as the new chief minister of Nagaland while attending the meeting of chief ministers that V.P. Singh, the new Prime Minister, had called to deliberate on the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid crisis.
The first thing Vamuzo did on reaching Delhi was to call on Shahi Imam Bukhari of the Jama Masjid, the leading Muslim voice in the crisis.
The members of the powerful committee for the protection of Babri Masjid were also present with the Imam. After paying tribute to the magnificent, multi-faceted heritage buildings, so evident all over Delhi and which Islam had bequeathed to modern India, Vamuzo said:
“Our voice and our numerical strength are insignificant in the present dispute between the two contending giants, the Hindus and the Muslims. But on behalf of my people, the Nagas, I would like to say that to the countless millions of devout Hindus, Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram, must be what Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is to us Christians.

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