Vajpayee, Advani severely indicted by the Liberhan Commission

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) The top Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leadership including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani,
Murli Manohar Joshi have been severely indicted and called
"pseudo-moderates" by a Commission that probed the demolition
of Babri Masjid 17 years ago.

The Justice M S Liberhan Commission of Inquiry also
attacked former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh
saying, the destruction of the disputed structure on December
6, 1992 was carried out in a "duplicitous and under-handed
manner" which was not worthy of a democratically-elected
government.

The four-volume report running into over 1000 pages and
government's Action Taken Report (ATR) on it were tabled in
Parliament by Home Minister of India P Chidambaram, a day
after a leak of the report in a national daily.

The Commission, which was set up 10 days after the
incident and got 48 extensions, recommended a law providing
for exemplary punishment for misuse of religion for acquiring
political power and disqualification of political parties and
candidates who have religious agenda.

It its ATR, government promised that a bill to check
communal violence was being contemplated which will include
provisions on some these recommendations while the Election
Commission would also be moved to look into them.

The ATR spoke of no punitive action against anyone and
merely took note of the cases filed against BJP and Sangh
Parivar leaders in various special courts in Lucknow and
Rae Bareli.

Unsparring in its attack on top BJP leadership, the
Commission listed Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi in a list of 68
leaders of the Parivar and officials as responsible "for
leading the country to the brink of communal discord" in their
individual culpability.

It said there was no manner of doubt admissible in the
culpability and responsibility of the Chief Minister (Kalyan
Singh), his ministers and Sangh Parivar leaders like Ashok
Singhal, K S Sudarshan and Vinay Katiyaar, who formed a
"complete cartel" supported by the icons of the movement like
Advani, Joshi and Vajpayee.

Kalyan Singh and his trusted lieutenants spared no lie
before the highest authorities of the land to befool them and
to tie their hands with the niceties of constitutional
democracies.

The Commission analysed the standards of culpability and
divided various persons and organisations into three groups.

The first group represented those who bore the primary
and greatest responsibility for the demolition as they had the
means to prevent the assault.

The second group consisted of those who portrayed the
benign face of Ayodhya campaign and gave false reassurances to
the courts, the people and the nation as a whole.

"Those who have been put in the second category in these
conclusions are referred to as 'pseudo-moderates' in contrast
to the radicals forming part of the first group," the report
said.

All these three groups, the Commission said had "managed
to reduce one of the greatest nations and one of the oldest
civilisations to the state of stark intolerance and
barbarianism-- all for petty political gains".

As the inner core of the Parivar, the top leadership of
the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and BJP bear the primary
responsibility.

"On the one hand, leaders like A B Vajpayee, Murli
Manohar Joshi and L K Advani, who are the undeniable public
face and leaders of the BJP and thus of the Parivar,
constantly protested their innocence and denounced the events
of December 1992.

"On the other hand, it stands established beyond doubt
that the events of the day were neither spontaneous, nor
unplanned nor unforeseen overflowing of the people's emotions,
nor the result of a foreign conspiracy as some overly
imaginative people have tried to suggest," it said.

Maintaining that it was unable to hold "pseudo-moderates
innocent of any wrongdoings", the Commission said "it cannot
be assumed even for a moment that L K Advani, A B Vajpayee or
M M Joshi did not know the designs of the Sangh Parivar.

"Even though these leaders were deemed and used by the
Parivar as the publicly acceptable faces and the articulated
voices of the Parivar and thus used to reassure the cautious
masses, they were party to the decisions which had been
taken."

Observing that the pseudo-moderates could not have defied
the mandate of the Sangh Parivar, specially the RSS without
having bowed out of public life as leaders of BJP, the
Commission said this BJP leadership was "as much a tool in the
hands of the RSS as any other organisation or entity and these
leaders stood to inherit the political successes engineered by
the RSS."

Referring to Govindacharya's famous mukhota or a mask
remark, the Commission said it may be "more appropriately
applied to the BJP leadership at the time collectively."

"Without leaders like Joshi, Advani and Vajpayee, the RSS
might have been able to achieve de facto clout, but would not
have been able to legitimise its hold on the Indian system by
translating that clout into political success," the report
said.

The Commission said these leaders cannot be given the
"benefit of doubt" and exonerated of culpability.

"There can be no grated betrayal or crime in a democracy
and this Commission have no hesitation in condemning these
pseudo-moderates for their sins of omissions."

Virtually giving a clean chit to the Central government
that was then headed by late P V Narasimha Rao, the Commission
found that the Centre was crippled by the failure of the
intelligence agencies to provide an analysis of the situation.

"It stayed its hand deferring to the honourable Supreme
Court which had taken up the matter was dealing with it by
giving appropriate directions.

"The Supreme Court was in turn misled by the pretentious
undertakings given by the Uttar Pradesh government and
leadership of the movement and the all-is-well reports by its
rapporteur Tej Shankar. Without proverbial leg to stand on,
there was little either could have done to forestall the
determination of the perverted guardians of democracy, who
were in control in Uttar Pradesh," it said.
The Commission also came down heavily on the use of
the security apparatus by the Kalyan Singh government and how
it was systematically ordered to desist from use of force or
resort to firing in any circumstances against the karsevaks or
their leaders.

"When push came to shove, the senior police officers were
at hand to ensure their men toed the line and that the
demolition of the disputed structure was allowed to go ahead
with military precision as orchestrated by the leaders present
at the spot and carried out by their henchmen whom they
refused to identify even before me," Justice Liberhan said in
his report.

By far the worst sin of omission of the state government
was leaking into public domain the information that the police
personnel had been hobbled and would not react or retaliate
under any circumstances.

Emboldened by the self-confessed handicap of the law
enforcement agencies of the state, the karsevaks enjoyed a
free hand aware that they were at zero risk from them.

"Even the forces demanded by the state government and
sent by the Central government for security purposes were
intentionally taken away from the scene and deployed at far
away places under the garb of meeting the threat of
terrorism," it said.

The Commission also questioned the role of the Supreme
Court observer in not alerting the Court to the clearly
unfolding duplicity and said it was something that raised
concerns about the impartiality and objectivity of the officer
who was handpicked by the state High Court.

"Even at the moment that the domes were being pulled
down, he was not at the spot, having been delayed by his
family members whom he had brought along to witness the
spectacle," the report said.

The Commission also had some words of criticism for some
"selective communal Muslim leaders" obsessed with personal or
individual influence for enhancing their political influence
and self gain for being merely bystanders during the entire
period and put forth dismal performance.

The Babri Masjid Action Committee never set up or
presented any claim to the disputed structure in any
negotiations and there stand was a merely simplicitor denial
of the claims of the Sangh Parivar.

"The Muslim leadership provided the rabid Hindu
ideologues sufficient cause to instill fear into the common
citizens of India," the report said adding the elite political
Muslim leadership was neither responsible nor caring for the
welfare of the community."

On the Commission's recommendations for establishing a
Criminal Justice Commission for monitoring the performance of
all law enforcement agencies, government said Law Commission
will be requested to study the proposal. PTI PYK
SDE
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