Liberhan report: Cong targets Atal, BJP demands PC resignation

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) With the Liberhan Commission report
on Babri Masjid demolition stirring the political scene,
Congress Tuesday kept Atal Bihari Vajpayee on its radar saying
it was a "guilt by association" while his party Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) demanded the resignation of Home Minister
of India P Chidambaram over its leakage to the media.

The BJP rallied behind Vajpayee and said the report
violated the principles of natural justice by naming the
former prime minister among the indicted persons without
summoning him for a hearing.

The BJP's founthead RSS stood behind the saffron party
whose top leadership has been indicted by the Commission
claiming whatever happened on the day of demolition on
December 6, 1992 was a result of "pent up frustration" and
anger of lakhs and crores of people.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said the
Liberhan Commission "only confirms the preplanned conspiracy"
to demolish the Babri Masjid by saffron outfits but felt that
the late premier P V Narasimha Rao was equally responsible for
the incident by not being able to prevent it.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi commenting on the
finding that the top leadership (of BJP) could not but have
known it(demolition) said of Vajpayee, "That is guilt by
association." Asked whether Congress was responsible for the
demolition, Singhvi said "I am touching my heart that
Congress is not responsible".

Upping the ante, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said,
"The report is leaked from not the Home Ministry but from the
Home Minister. We demand that the Home Minister take full
responsibility and give his resignation." The BJP also
demanded a CBI probe.

Kalyan Singh, who was the Chief Minister of BJP-ruled
Uttar Pradesh in 1992 at the time of the demolition, showed no
remorse and did not regret the incident.

Kalyan Singh however condemned the inclusion of
Vajpayee's name in the Liberhan report saying it was
politically motivated.

BJP president Rajnath Singh demanded that responsibility
be fixed over the leakage of the Liberhan report to the media.
His party colleague Murli Manohar Joshi demanded setting up of
a Joint Parliamentary Committee(JPC) for a probe.

Singhvi while seeking to blame Vajpayee for the
demolition asked, "If he (Vajpayee) is aggreived that he has
been named wrongly, he has a right to go to a court of law to
get it rectified. He can challenge it. He cannot say it
(demolition) was not known to him... Is it not a clear case of
guilt by association."

He sought to absolve Narasimha Rao of any culpability in
the demolition when asked whether he too was responsible.

"You do not have a sense of proportion and balance. You
are falling in the trap of the principal accused (BJP). Here,
there is a long list of principal accused who were standing
there...Law and order is a state subject. The central
government has no locus and power to deal with law and order
on the spot," he said.

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav said, "nobody can be blamed
or held as guilty...whatever happened on that day in Ayodhya
was a result of the pent up frustration and anger of lakhs and
crores of people."

Observing that Vajpayee was not a culprit, CPI leader A B
Bardhan said Narasimha Rao also could not be exonerated on the
issue. "By 12-o-clock, Rao knew everything on the demolition
of the Babri Masjid and he was sleeping. He cannot be
exonerated."

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the main issue of
giving exemplary punishment to those found guilty of "most
serious assault on our secular democratic polity should not be
deflected" by the demand for a probe into the leakage of the
report. PTI TEAM
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