Click to play videoThe demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, ignited nationwide communal riots and left nearly 3,000 people dead. Ten days after the incident, the PV Narasimha Rao government had set up a Commission headed by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan to probe into the demolition. However, the Commission took 17 years to submit the report.
According to a report in the Indian Express on Monday, the Liberhan Commission has indicted many senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
CNN-IBN spoke to former BJP leader and chief of Bhartiya Janshakti Party Uma Bharti, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi to get their reaction on the alleged leak of the Liberhan report.
CNN-IBN: One of the images of the Babri Masjid that stood out showed you (Uma Bharti) behind Murli Manohar Joshi celebrating the demolition of the mosque. You have never hidden the fact that you were involved in the demolition. Therefore if you are indicted today you should take responsibility for it.
Uma Bharti: Today the debate is not about the picture but about who is responsible for the demolition. I take moral responsibility of it because I participated in that movement and I was one of the most popular BJP leaders. But the actual responsibility lies in three sections – first being the insensitivity of the bureaucracy, second the undue delay in the judiciary system and third the politics of minorities. But taking moral responsibility for it doesn’t mean that I won’t challenge this in court of law.
CNN-IBN: After 17 years the report seem to be ready and the BJP wants it to be tabled in Parliament. If the report indicts you, then you still think that you should be in public life or you think that this report should not affect who is in public life and who is not?
Uma Bharti: I wanted Ram Mandir to be build and for this that structure had to be removed. So, why should I feel so guilty about it that I should not be in public life? By owing the responsibility for it I just mean that if legally I am found guilty I am ready to go to the jail but I will go with pride and not shame.
CNN-IBN: Then what does the report mean? After 17 years when the Commission has completed its report you say that even if the law indicts you, you find no reason to be out of public life. Doesn’t this report mean too little to you? Perhaps, it will give you one more chance to play politics.
Uma Bharti: When we participated in the Ram Janam Bhumi Movement, it was not only us who did politics. Even Rajiv Gandhi gave a call in the name of Ram Rajya. Some were on the Ram Mandir side and some were favouring Babri Masjid. Everyone played politics then why just blame us.
There were two major parties involved in the either side of the debate in Parliament – Congress and the BJP.
CNN-IBN: Why is Congress hesitating from tabling this report?
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: There is complete obfuscation of the issue by the BJP and I wonder how the press is partly following the parade. Let me get the facts correct. We have received the report some months back. If we had to paint the BJP black then we would have done it during General Elections or other state Assembly elections. There is a process through which it goes, we are evaluating it and an ATR will come.
CNN-IBN: Rajiv Pratap Rudy what is your response to this?
Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Abhishek Manu Singhvi has himself raised the vital question which the BJP has been raising that why has the Congress party selectively chosen to take out a part of the report and leak it to a particular print media to create a chaos. We had issues like Koda scam, price rise to take up in Parliament against the Congress and therefore they have done this and brought up the Liberhan Commission issue.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: We don’t know how and where the report was leaked. The Government of India and the Congress is not relying on the Indian Express report of the Liberhan Commission. It is BJP who is saying there is a Vajpayee issue and shooting it down. After 17 years when the Liverhan report has come out it will give out the details of what, when and how. But for the 17 years the general population knows the basic trend of the incident.
Uma Bharti: Atal Bihari Vajpayee agreed that a Ram Mandir should be constructed but he never agreed on the demolition of the Masjid. And for Narasimha Rao, I salute him.
CNN-IBN: What is the BJP’s problem that the report has been leaked without being tabled in Parliament or the content of the reports are troubling you that Vajpayee’s name could come up in the report and Narasimha Rao has been given some kind of clean chit?
Rajiv Pratap Rudy: What’s troubling is that the Congress party selectively picks up some part of the report and leaks to the media. Moreover, they do it at a time when they are cornered in Parliament. This is a way to distract the nation.
CNN-IBN: The bigger question that I want to ask all of you is that should the country not debate issue of climate change and other issues important for India’s future than the 17 year old issue?
Rajiv Pratap Rudy: I think this question the media should asks itself first. They should not print these reports on the front page before the reports are tabled in Parliament. But the Congress wants to use it to showdown the BJP.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: I agree with you that we need to look forward. It is the Congress party which looks forward because BJP takes back to middle age crisis.
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