After making the nation wait for 17 years for the real story of the December 6 demolition that shook India in 1992, the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry produced a damp squib of a report that shied away from demanding punitive action against those it held culpable for the events of that fateful day.
There seemed to be a disconnect between the commission’s conclusions and its recommendations. It pointed a finger at former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi (and a host of 65 other RSS, VHP and BJP leaders) for the destruction of the Ram Janmabhoomi- Babri Masjid structure and yet let them all off the hook by not following through with an action plan for the government to bring them to book.
“(It) cannot be assumed even for a moment that LK Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Murli Manohar Joshi did not know the designs of the Sangh parivar... The commission has no hesitation in condemning these pseudo-moderates for their sins of omission,’’ the report said. But, a few paragraphs later, it admits that “the evidence… before the commission does not show that the pseudo-moderates were in charge of the situation, much less change the course that the (Ayodhya) campaign was taking.”
Unsparing in its attack on the top BJP leadership, the commission said there was no doubt about the culpability and responsibility of the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister (Kalyan Singh), his ministers and Sangh parivar leaders like Ashok Singhal, KS Sudarshan and Vinay Katiyar, who formed a “complete cartel” supported by the icons of the movement like Advani, Joshi and Vajpayee.
Kalyan Singh and his trusted lieutenants “spared no lie” before the highest authorities of the land to befool them and to tie their hands with the niceties of constitutional democracy, the commission said. It is, therefore, softer on former prime minister Narasimha Rao, and says the Centre could have done little to avoid the destruction of the structure given these constitutional niceties.
The harsh language of the findings found no reflection in the recommendations which were general in nature and read like a liberal political philosophy document that warned against mixing religion with politics, suggested more powers for the riot police and called for stricter monitoring of the media on communally sensitive issues.
Most of Liberhan’s recommendations are unlikely to pass muster in the current political climate, where state-level parties are calling the shots. Among other things, the commission calls for giving the Centre the right to deploy forces in states without the sanction of the state government, setting up a commission to decide whether there was a temple or a mosque at the disputed site, legislating laws to punish misuse of religion and caste for political purposes, banning parties which bring religion into their manifestoes, and requiring the mediapersons to obtain licences (like lawyers and CAs) so that undesirable practices are kept out.
``The report has made more recommendations on the media than on us,’’ laughed BJP leader Sushma Swaraj. Her remark was a hint that the party intends to debunk the report by questioning its credibility.
Quantifying the culpability of the various guilty parties, the commission divided the leaders, bureaucrats and organisations into three groups with the first representing those who bear the “primary and the greatest” responsibility for the events of December 6 (the Sangh parivar). The second group consists of those who bear physical, ideological and intellectual responsibility (Vajpayee, et al) while the third one represented those who bear tertiary responsibility for the situation (rabid Muslim leaders, the pliant bureaucracy).
The commission’s report and the government’s action taken report (ATR) on its recommendations were tabled in both houses of parliament on Tuesday in response to opposition demands following the premature publication of its findings in a newspaper the day before.
The storm that buffeted parliament on Monday over the ``leakage’’ died as suddenly as it erupted once it became clear that the operative portions of the report left no scope for either the BJP or the Congress to make political capital of an issue that has dominated national politics for 17 years.
For the record, the Congress said the government will conduct further investigations based on the commission’s findings and file an additional charge-sheet in the ongoing court cases if necessary. But both the national parties saw the tabling of the report as the close of a chapter in the nation’s political history. This was underlined by the fact that parliament functioned normally for most of the day, save for a brief disruption when the report was tabled.
The sense of relief in the two camps was palpable. For the BJP, the tame recommendations are a sign that the commission failed to unearth tangible evidence nailing its top leaders to the demolition conspiracy. It means the party no longer has to carry the Babri demolition as a badge of courage and can focus its efforts on cornering the government for ``leaking’’ the document to the press before placing it in parliament. It has kicked off the campaign by demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the ``leakage’’.
The Congress feels it has crossed a major hump and is no longer threatened by a possible resurrection of the temple issue. A senior government leader acknowledged privately that they do not intend to pursue the matter further.
Comments