On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress clashed over the findings of the Liberhan Commission, which is believed to have indicted senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and M M Joshi, among others, for the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.
Justice M S Liberhan, who submitted his findings to the government on June 30, this year, after an inquiry lasting nearly 17 years, has called the BJP leaders "pseudo-moderates" and stated that the entire build-up to the demolition was meticulously planned, according to a newspaper report.
The voluminous report, expected to be tabled in the Parliament along with the 'action taken report' during the ongoing winter session, is believed to have refrained from coming down heavily on the then Union government headed by P V Narasimha Rao, saying that the then state governor did not do much and also did not seek the Centre's intervention.
Accusing the Congress government of "selectively leaking" the report to one newspaper, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said this has been done to "divert attention from core issues" like price rise and corruption.
The BJP may demand suspension of question hour in both Houses of Parliament in protest against "selective leaks" of the Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition.
"There is no authenticity of the report. Why government is shying away from tabling the Liberhan report in the Parliament?" Rudy asked and said that the move was aimed at creating "turmoil in Parliament and across the nation."
M M Joshi said, "This is a leakage and such leakages are, I think, with a political motive. So the best thing is that the government should place the entire report (in Parliament) and what action they want to take on the report."
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that for nearly two decades, the nation as a whole generally knew what had happened and how senior functionaries of a political party watched people causing destruction and mayhem and then shed "crocodile tears"
"The nation as a whole knows the proximity of the structure where these supposedly senior functionaries of a political party were standing, many of them joyous and clapping, watching hordes of people causing destruction and mayhem and then shedding crocodile tears," Singhvi said.
"The nation also knows about the Rath Yatra, the organised movements. So, I think the people of this country cannot be treated as fools as those who treat them as fools are the real fools," he quipped.
Singhvi said, "There is no question of confirming or denying the report because it is a property of the Parliament which is in session and only when the government tables it that we can speak on it."
Demanding that the report be immediately placed before Parliament, Joshi said that six months have passed and, according to the law, it is incumbent upon the government to table the report along with the ATR.
Justice Liberhan said that "anybody could manipulate my report and put something in my mouth but I am not going to comment on it."
BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar accused the Congress of playing "dirty politics". "And we (the BJP) don't react on leaks as nobody has authenticated the report. So unless government comes out openly and gives the ATR, it is useless to discuss the subject," he said.
Giving his reaction, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav accused the government of sitting over the Liberhan report. "Right from the Sri Krishna Commission and Liberhan Commission, all these commissions (were) set up by Congress governments and now they are sitting on it," he said.
