NEW DELHI Seventeen years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry will be tabled in parliament, Home Minister P Chidambaram promised on Monday as a political storm engulfed both houses following reports that the probe had indicted BJP leaders, including Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani.
According to a report published in the Indian Express, the Liberhan Commission had indicted the former prime minister and his deputy besides senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi. This was followed up by NDTV channel that said it had access to the probe report, which labelled the 1992 demolition as “tailor made” and also blamed Uttar Pradesh’s then BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh.
The report had been “selectively leaked” to the media, an outraged BJP said, demanding that the report, submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 30, be tabled in the parliament immediately.
Leader of Opposition Advani said he was shocked by the published report.
Murli Manohar Joshi, echoed him when he said: “...Such leakages are made with a political motive and the government should place the entire report in parliament and then we will discuss it.”
As the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned repeatedly, the home minister intervened to say that Liberhan report would be tabled in the ongoing winter session - exactly 17 years after the Dec. 6, 1992 demolition of Babri mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town over claims that it was built over the Hindu deity Ram’s birthplace.
The commission that probed the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition submitted its report on June 30, and “we are required to table it along with the action taken report within six months,” Chidambaram said.
“We shall table it during the (current) winter session,” of parliament.
“It is unfortunate that a newspaper has published what purports to be the contents of the report,” the home minister said.
“There’s only one copy in safe custody and I can assure the house that none from the ministry of home affairs has spoken to anyone.”
As the storm intensified so did the confusion.
A senior official of the Liberhan Commission said he was “astonished” at the report linking Vajpayee to the demolition. Anupam Gupta, counsel for the commission that was set up soon after the mosque was demolished in 1992, had dissociated himself from the one-man panel after eight years because of differences with Liberhan. He told NDTV channel that Vajpayee was the only BJP leader who was not connected to the mosque razing.
Indo-Asian News Service
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