Click to play videoWho is secular and who is communal? That was the bone of contention in the debate in Parliament on Monday on the Liberhan Commission Report about the demolition of the Babri Masjid. But as Shakespeare says, "There was sound, there was fury but most of it seemed to signify nothing."
The BJP says it is committed to the Ram temple, the Congress says then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao cannot be blamed for the demolition and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav says both Congress and BJP are to blame for the demolition.
That brings us to the question of the day that was asked on CNN-IBN show Face The Nation: Should the BJP apologise for the Babri Masjid demolition?
On the panel of experts to try and answer that question were MP and Spokesperson of the Congress Manish Tewari, Editor-in-Chief of The Pioneer Chandan Mitra and Political Editor of the Hindustan Times Vinod Sharma.
BJP and its Babri dilemma
Why isn't there more clarity from the BJP on the Liberhan report? Why not take Left leader Gurudas Dasgupta's advice – either disown, defend or apologise on the matter.
"Things cannot be seen in just black and white. And what should the BJP apologise for? There was a huge spontaneous upsurge that day in which kar sewaks went out of control and demolished the Babri Masjid despite repeated pleas by the BJP leaders. However, it is a fact that the BJP wants a grand Ram temple to be rebuilt at the site where the Babri mosque stood. So what is objectionable about it?" Chandan Mitra said.
Wasn't it an assault on the rule of law? Wasn't it an illegal act in which a structure was brought down by force?
Claiming that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi started the issue before the BJP and it was a spontaneous movement by the Hindus which was led by the BJP, Mitra argued, "When people assemble in large numbers and are frustrated by court delays what is one supposed to do? When Rajiv Gandhi did the shilyannas at the site… you know you do a shilyannas to not set up a mosque but to build a mandir ."
Congress which claims to be secular seems to be soft-pedalling this issue. When the UPA Government came back to power why did it not strongly prosecute those accused of demolition?
"Criminal cases were registered against all the accused in 1993. The accused have used every tactic available in the legal book to delay the proceedings," Manish Tewari claimed.
"But the argument that Mr Mitra is making is fallacious. The events from 1985 to 1992 played out in full public view. And after 17 years we see the intent was never to construct a temple. The intent was use the Babri Masjid as a hate object, whip up emotions so that they could come to power," Tewari added.
Congress cornered?
By not doing enough on the case does the Congress indicate that it does not want to give an issue to the BJP which will help the saffron party in getting Hinduvta back into the focus.
"That is absolutely incorrect. The larger question is that if a state government gives a commitment to the Supreme Court that they will protect and uphold the rule of law but decides to go rogue then what is the Central government supposed to do?" Tewari asked.
Experts have been quoted as saying that the Congress government facilitated the Ram Janmabhoomi cause at every stage right from the opening of the locks of the masjid.
As the debate gathered steam, experts debated if there is any clarity from the BJP on its stand is on the case.
"Rajnath Singh did not make a political speech at all in Parliament on Monday. It was a post-mortem of the events and the report. It seemed that the BJP made a mistake in making him the lead speaker. Sushma Swaraj would have done a better job of it," Vinod Sharma said.
"Gurudas Dasgupta made the best speech actually in which he said that he is not seeking punitive actions against the BJP and the best punishment would be their political isolation. And that set the tone of the debate. So at the end of the day, the first round went to the non-BJP parties," he added.
In an earlier reference to Rahul Gandhi not being present during the debate, Mitra said, "Mr Rahul Gandhi's propagandist (Vinod Sharma) can say whatever he wants to about Rahul Gandhi's proxy participation in the Lok Sabha debate from Aligarh but it has nothing to do with the masjid."
"During a speech in Aligarh on Monday Rahul may have said that a Muslim can become the PM but that has nothing to do with the Congress' approach to the case. The Congress' record is so sullied that they don't have a leg to stand on. They opened the lock (of the Babri masjid), they went for the shilannyas, their people participated in the kar seva and after that they field Jagdambika Pal for the debate in Parliament who is an accused as he was part of the Kalyan Singh government when the incident took place."
Clearing the air, Tewari said, "The point that Rahul Gandhi made was that everybody in this country who is meritorious irrespective of his religion can rise to the top job. The problem is when the BJP believes that some are more equal than the others."
On a lighter note, according to a Tweet that Face The Nation received it was pointed out that "Jairam is more important at this moment than Jai Shri Ram – climate change is more important than the mandir-masjid issue."
Concluding the debate, Sharma said, "The BJP's argument has been that there was a temple once and there shall always be one. It has said that it was not pre-planned and it was a spontaneous reaction by the kar sewaks. But what leadership is this that gets led by the outrage of people? And what kind of planning was made before they assembled there? And what about the speeches that Advani had made before the demolition? So it is all a sham argument.
"The BJP was totally isolated in Parliament on Monday. The party needs to regret what it has done," he said.
Final results of the SMS/web poll:
Yes – 56 per cent
No – 44 per cent
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