A highly-placed Congress source, indicated that BJP leader LK Advani has probably been let off the hook as one of the main conspirators to the demolition.
Nearly 17 years and 399 hearings later, the Liberhan Commission inquiring into the demolition of the Babri Masjid submitted its report to prime minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday. But instead of finally closing a dark chapter in the nation’s political and social history, the report paved the way for another exchange of political fire between the Congress and the BJP. Both lost no time in drawing battlelines and trading charges although the contents of the voluminous report are yet to become public.
It was clear from home minister P Chidambaram’s comments to some reporters that the government is in no hurry to divulge the Commission’s findings. With the Maharashtra assembly elections coming up in three months, the Congress would prefer to keep the pot simmering and the BJP guessing rather than reveal its cards. It is unlikely, therefore, that the Liberhan report or an accompanying action taken report (ATR) will be tabled in the budget session of Parliament beginning on Thursday.
Still, a few hints about the contents of the report were available on Tuesday. A highly-placed Congress source, who is privy to relevant details of the findings, indicated that BJP leader LK Advani has probably been let off the hook as one of the main conspirators to the demolition.
The source said he may be indirectly indicted through critical references to the role of his rath yatra in creating an atmosphere that made the demolition happen.
It is not clear what the Commission has said on another senior BJP leader, Murli Manohar Joshi, but with the Congress not keen on presenting the saffron party with a mobilisation point, it is likely that he too may get off lightly.
However, others in the cast of characters in Ayodhya on that fateful day, like Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Ashok Singhal and Kalyan Singh, may not get off so lightly. Some of them seemed to get a whiff of what the report contains. There were sharp reactions from Uma and Katiyar with the former accusing the Congress of trying to “collect Muslim votes” through the Liberhan Commission. None are BJP members and therefore, need not be defended by the party.
With the government keeping the report under wraps, there was deep anxiety in the BJP over its contents and the possible political fallout. The party has decided to wait and watch for the moment. Advani held a meeting with parliamentary party leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj in the afternoon in which they adopted a “play-it-cool” policy, especially in Parliament. So, instead of disrupting the House and blocking all debate, it will argue its case in a full-fledged discussion, if necessary.
The Congress will have to tread carefully in its efforts to extract political mileage out of the Liberhan report. The document sends a strong positive signal to the Muslim community, which is an important voter block in Maharashtra. But aggressive moves by the Congress could send the BJP scurrying to paper over the cracks in its divided saffron family and rally together to take a stab at reviving its drooping fortunes.
The report is bound to raise a storm in the parliament as parties opposed to the BJP mount pressure on the government to table it. BSP’s Mayawati was the first off the block on Tuesday with the demand. But given that it will be a short session whose main business is to pass the budget, the government is confident that it can manage the atmospherics.
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