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ShareThe attack on the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 was a well-televised event. The then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao may have been asleep at the time, but many watched the incident with well-justified horror. That one act led to violence, anger and hatred, the impact of which is still felt to this day. The government set out to find out the whys and wherefores of the incident and to look at the behind-the-scenes conspiracy. The Central Bureau of Investigation was handed the task and a commission was appointed to submit its report within three months. The responsibility for the demolition of what has delicately been called "the disputed structure" was never in doubt. The degree of responsibility is what the commission could at best point to. Nearly 17 years and Rs8 crore later, the Liberhan Commission has finally submitted its report to the Government of India.
Our short history as an independent nation is littered with commission reports gathering dust in government offices. Since they are, effectively, toothless in law, no action has to be taken on them. They are at best a sop for some injured party and even that is nullified by the time taken to finish them. The report into the Sikh riots of 1984 took 20 years. The Srikrishna report into the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots in Mumbai is ignored and forgotten in a government office. The final report into the Gujarat riots of 2002 is still awaited. These are a few examples.
The Liberhan commission report is now likely to become a political football. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh Parivar have put on an air of injured innocence and of practised belligerence -- with Sadhvi Rithambhara, one of those prominent in the campaign against the Babri Masjid, resurfacing to say she is not sorry about what happened, only about the manner in which it did. The Congress will undoubtedly see possibilities of making political capital out of it.
The Congress is not making any commitment when the report will be tabled in Parliament. The BJP is suggesting that the timing of the release, two days before Parliament begins, is "intriguing", as if 17 years is not long enough. Many of the dramatis personae of the entire episode have had their day in power and are now out of it.
The issue of justice and application of the law still remains and the Liberhan commission has reopened old wounds and memories.
