New Delhi, Dec. 7: A somewhat contrite Congress today entreated the BJP to seize a chance to repent for the Babri Masjid demolition in the interest of communal amity but the Opposition party sought to split hairs over the Liberhan report and renewed a pledge to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Betraying neither a sense of remorse nor a perceived makeover in the wake of successive electoral setbacks, outgoing BJP president Rajnath Singh concentrated his firepower on reeling off a meticulous compilation of the Liberhan commission’s slip-ups.
Rajnath was taking part in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Liberhan commission report, a day after the 17th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The litany of alleged lapses in the report stood out in sharp contrast with the impassioned appeal of minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed to the BJP to make some sacrifices for the coming generation so that India could live in peace.
Amid repeated thumping of desks, Salman said: “We too might have committed some mistakes. We have rectified that. You too should concede you were wrong. At least say you will accept the court’s verdict. How can you say even now that the temple will be built there only? The whole world knows what happened in Ayodhya. We should do some course correction.”
Confronting Rajnath’s argument that the demolition was the result of people’s anger, he said: “You have forgotten what you did for years to create that anger. Tell us if that’s the job of political parties.”
Khursheed’s reference to “some mistakes” by the Congress government is in line with his party’s policy of apologising for atrocities. While Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh tendered apologies for the massacre of Sikhs in 1984, many Congress leaders have expressed regret for the events of December 6, 1992, too.
L.K. Advani had said the demolition saddened him but he also took pride in leading the Ayodhya movement.
Khursheed, who enlivened an otherwise dull debate, accepted that the then Congress government led by P.V. Narasimha Rao may have committed some mistakes, particularly by trusting Kalyan Singh, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the mosque was pulled down.
But he demolished Rajnath’s formulations on Hindutva. “We have learnt about Hindu religion from Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi said ‘Hey Ram’ when he breathed his last. He didn’t say ‘Jai Sri Ram’ after taking somebody’s life.”
Khursheed, however, supported Rajnath’s contention that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was wrongly indicted by the commission, which found the BJP veteran culpable. (See inset)
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, however, said Vajpayee was equally responsible. Threatened by Rahul Gandhi’s inroads and desperate to convince Muslims that he is their biggest protector, Mulayam said the demolition was a Congress-BJP joint venture and that the late Narasimha Rao had ignored his pleas to dismiss the Kalyan government.
Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav said the Congress had exploded the Liberhan bomb to divert people’s attention from issues like price rise, drought and corruption. But he said Advani’s rath yatra was in violation of the Constitution.
The debate will continue tomorrow.
atal card
The Centre has pointed out that Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name was not among the alleged conspirators behind the Babri demolition, focusing its firepower on L.K. Advani and other BJP leaders. “Vajpayee’s name was not in the conspiracy, his name was only there in one of the lists,” Union minister Salman Khursheed said during the debate in the Lok Sabha.
