Hindutva vanguard As with caste and class, any sanguine views of the India judiciary before Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power changes somewhat when seen from the point of view of minority rights. There has been much criticism of the Supreme Court’s unusual 2019 judgement awarding the land on which the Babri Masjid stood to the very forces that demolished the mosque in 1992. Less discussed is that the kar seva that led to the demolition was itself allowed by the Supreme Court. So completely did the Supreme Court fail at that critical moment that even the observer it appointed blithely ignored his job and actually brought his family along to watch the mosque being torn down. To complete the disaster, the Supreme Court has not held the Uttar Pradesh state government and its ministers legally responsible for the demolition in spite of the fact that it allowed the kar seva on that fateful day based on the administration’s promises.