Amid controversy over leakage of the Liberhan Commission report, the Congress targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party saying the indictment of those responsible for the incident is very clear.
"Perceptionally the indictment is very clear. Perceptionally the issue in the mind of people is already settled as far as guilt and culpability are concerned. BJP and its affiliates are responsible (for the demolition)," Party spokesperson Manish Tewari told media-persons in New Delhi. He said the events that culminated in the demolition of the mosque were played in "full public view".
To a question why the government was not placing the Commission report before the House immediately as demanded by the opposition, Tewari hoped the government will do it as soon as possible. "The Commission gave its report to the government on 30th June. It has to table the report in the Parliament within six months (December 30). Home Minister has already said it will be placed before the expiry of six months. Let it be tabled then," he added.
Asked to comment on Rahul Gandhi's reported statement that had his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, been alive, the mosque would not have been demolished, Tewari said, "it is a reiteration of the fundamental values, tenets of secularism in which he and his family believes." On the accountability for leakage of the report, he said, "I am not commenting on veracity of the report (that has been published) as the Commission report is not before Parliament. Till then we cannot treat it as official".
Top BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and functionaries of the sangh parivar outfits are believed to have been indicted by the Liberhan Commission for their role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid 17 years ago. However, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP patriarch and former prime minister, has not not been indicted with the Commission noting that he had left Ayodhya a day before, informed sources said. The then Congress prime mnister P V Narasimha Rao also went unscathed as the Commission took the view that he could not not have acted unless the Governor had recommended central intervention as provided for in the Constitution.
Justice M S Liberhan, former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, in his voluminous report, said to be running into over 900 pages, has noted that Advani and Joshi were personally present when the disputed structure in Ayodhya was brought down on Dec 6, 1992, and did nothing to stop it. Kalyan Singh, the then BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has come in for severest indictment from the Commission for total inaction to prevent the demolition, although he was said to be aware of the parivar plans.
As chief political executive of the administration Singh did not not requisition Central forces which were at his disposal for stopping the kar sevaks from bringing down the structure, the report is believed to have said. Also criticised are Uma Bharati, the then Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal and the Shiv Sena for their role. The Commission is reported to have observed that the BJP leadership provided the "mask" for the mobilisation campaign and also made false promises about the safety of the structure.
The Central Reserve Police Force was specially faulted for not not acting even as 120 of its companies were present at the site on the day of the incident. The demolition of the 16th century structure was "tailor made" and pre-planned about which the entire sangh parivar was aware, it said. Top UP officials at that time including the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, the District Magistrate of Faizabad and the Central Reserve Police Force have also come under severe criticism from the Commission.
