Advani outside the Rae Bareli court on Thursday. (PTI)

Rae Bareli/New Delhi, July 28: Almost 13 years after the Babri Masjid was torn down, a case relating to the event reached trial stage today with charges framed against L.K. Advani and seven others.

The embattled BJP president, put on notice by the RSS over recent statements that Hindutva hawks consider ideologically suspect, used the occasion to make the right noises for the hardliners’ ears.

Advani reminded everyone of his leading role in the temple agitation by saying today’s events had “rekindled my memory of the days of the Ayodhya movement”. He also pledged to ensure that a Ram temple is built at the site where Babri Masjid stood.

“I have a twin objective now in carrying forward the movement,” Advani said. “One is to build the temple. The other is to fight the mindset of the pseudo-secular parties which use minorities as a vote bank in the country.”

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav refused to comment on Advani’s speech or the recent standoff between the BJP chief and the Sangh.

“That chapter is over,” he said in New Delhi. “There is no point harking back to the past; let us look to the future.”

On the temple, Madhav repeated the Sangh stand. “We always believed that the events of December 6, 1992, (the day Babri Masjid was demolished), were a spontaneous outpouring of the pent-up anger against the misdemeanours of the pseudo-secularists.”

At Rae Bareli, Advani and the seven other accused were waiting outside the court room when, at 11.30 am, an assistant in the special CBI court called for them.

Advani, fellow BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar as well as VHP stalwarts Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Acharya Giriraj Kishore and Sadhvi Ritambhara were ushered on to a spacious box.

All the accused pleaded not guilty and asked for bail, which was granted against a bond of Rs 10,000 for each.

Special judge V.K. Singh read out the charges: “You are all facing charges under Sections 147 (rioting), 149 (crime with objective), 153 A/B (spreading communal frenzy) and Section 1 of 505 (spreading enmity among different classes at a place of worship)? which have provisions of imprisonment from two to five years and fine or both.”

The court fixed August 30 for the trial.

The Rae Bareli court had in September 2003 acquitted Advani but the order was quashed on July 6 this year by Allahabad High Court. The trial court then directed all the accused to appear before it on July 28.

After the proceedings, Advani drove to the town’s Reformation Club ground to address a crowd of over 5,000.

The court case will strengthen his resolve to build the temple, the BJP chief said. He suggested that a court order cannot be a solution as that could be challenged in a higher court and the matter would linger on. Nor is there likely to be a solution through dialogue.

“I would have been happier had there been any gesture from the minority community leaders to make way for the temple construction,” Advani said.