Muslims can never forgive Rao: AIMPLB

The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) asserted on Sunday that former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were equally responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

At a meeting in Lucknow to discuss the Liberhan Commission report, among other things, the board placed the UPA government in the dock over several issues related to Muslims.
It expressed displeasure at the Centre’s ATR (action taken report) on the Liberhan report and rejected its proposals on a central madrassa board and the prevention of communal violence bill. AIMPLB demanded that cases related to the Babri demolition be expedited and criminal cases filed against those named in the Liberhan report but not in pending cases.

“When the BJP has been found guilty of the demolition, its leader [Vajpayee] automatically becomes responsible,” the board’s assistant secretary general Abdur Rehman Qureishi said, adding, “It is the leader who formulates a party’s policies and runs its campaigns, how can Vajpayee be absolved of responsibility?”

About Rao, he said, “The commission has noted that Rao could have recommended imposition of president’s rule much before the mosque was razed… “We [Muslims] can never forgive Rao… we can never forgive the Congress [for the demolition].”