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Babri Masjid demolition neither spontaneous nor unplanned: Liberhan
IANS | New Delhi
Negating the theory handed out by Hindu groups that the Babri Masjid demolition was mob-driven, the Liberhan Commission has said it has been "established beyond doubt" that the events of Dec 6, 1992, in Ayodhya were "neither spontaneous nor unplanned".
The commission, whose report on the demolition was tabled Tuesday in parliament, also blamed the entire temple construction movement on the Sangh Parivar -- Hindu rightwing groups.
A former high court judge, M.S. Liberhan in his report has called former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi as "pseudo-moderates" and condemned them for their role in the demolition.
"... it stands established beyond doubt that the events of the day were neither spontaneous nor unplanned nor an unforeseen overflowing of the people's emotion, nor the result of a foreign conspiracy as some overly imaginative people have tried to suggest," the 1,029-page report said.
The report said the "blame or the credit" for the entire Ram temple movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to the Sangh Parivar.
"The Parivar is a highly successful and corporatised model of a political party and as the Ayodhya campaign demonstrates, has developed a highly efficient organisational structure."
"While the structure or the methods of the Sangh Parivar for aggregating a substantial public base may neither be illegal nor strictly objectionable, the use of this gargantuan whole for the purpose of the Ayodhya campaign was clearly against the letter and spirit of Indian law and ethos."
The report said that the attempts by the "pseudo-moderate elements" within the Parivar were "predictably of little significance and were destined to fail, whether by design or otherwise".
On Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi, the report said: "These leaders cannot however be given the benefit of the doubt and exonerated of culpability.
"These leaders have violated the trust of the people and have allowed their actions to be dictated not by the voters but by a small group of individuals who have used them to implement agendas unsanctioned by the will of the common person.
"There can be no greater betrayal or crime in a democracy and the Commission has no hesitation in condemning these pseudo-moderates of their sins of omission," it added.
"As the inner core of the Parivar, the top leadership of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad), Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and the BJP bear primary responsibility," it added.
Muslim leadership conspicuous by its absence: Liberhan report
New Delhi: While pinning the blame of the Babri Masjid demolition on Hindu rightwing groups, the Liberhan Commission has also lashed out at the "fanatical Muslim leadership" for "its failure to protest effectively against the events which were building up to a crescendo".
The voluminous report, running to more than 1,000 pages, indicted "selective Muslim leaders, obsessed with building personal or individual influence or following for enhancing their political influence for self gain". They were "mere bystanders" and "put forth a dismal performance".
"While the RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and the BJP brought the temple construction movement to the front burner and caused it to boil over, the fanatic Muslim leadership making the counterclaim were either completely complacent and had no substantial or effective leadership or were simply incompetent," it stated.
Singling out the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC), later the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee (AIBMAC), it said "the Muslim leadership did little to counter the latent fears stoked up by the RSS and VHP leadership and instead provided it with the opportunity to embark on what started out as a defensive strategy".
According to the report, tabled in parliament Tuesday: "It is impossible to fight a war or to recruit warriors without the presence of an adversary... The Muslim leadership wittingly or unwittingly fulfilled this requirement for the founders of the RSS and the VHP."
The Muslim leadership, the one-man commission has concluded, was "conspicuous by its absence".
It did little to "counter the distortions of history that were being bandied about by the Sangh Parivar to whip up the country into a frenzy".
The leadership's sins of omission had made the Sangh Parivar's task easier, Justice Liberhan has said in his conclusion while holding the organisations and individuals "guilty at a tertiary level for their failure to effectively champion the cause of their constituents, and of the neutrals, and for their failure as an effective democratic opposition".
Firmly separate politics and religion: Liberhan
New Delhi: Retired judge M.S. Liberhan, who probed the razing of the 1992 Babri Masjid, has called for a firm separation of religion and politics and sought "exemplary punishment" for those using religion for political ends.
"The events of Dec 6, 1992, and the many subsequent events have already shown to the nation the danger and the disruptive potential of allowing the intermixing of religion and politics," Liberhan said in his over 1,000-page report placed in parliament Tuesday.
He went on to say that the "use of religion, caste or regionalism is a regressive and dangerous trend, capable of alienating people and dividing them into small sections".
"I must recommend that the de-merger of religion and politics must be studied and implemented at the earliest.
"It is inherently unfair, and immoral and legally dubious, to hold democracy hostage to religious and casteist blackmail," the report said in the chapter titled "Recommendations".
The report sought statutory power for the National Integration Council (NIC) so as "to implement secularism as envisaged by the constitution".
Saying criminalisation of political office and mixing of political and religious affairs had become the order of the day, he sought a separate law to provide "exemplary punishment for misuse of religion, caste etc. for political gains or illicit acquisition of political or other power".
"Regional tribunals for ensuring swift prosecution and effective implementation of the law ought to be set up in the four corners of the country," he said.
"The threat from communal violence needs to be dealt with firmly. Specialized investigating squads need to be formed under the state criminal investigation agency and communal offences or crimes committed during communal riots ought to be vigorously investigated," he said.
"Governments should not be able to withdraw charges relating to communal riots."
The report demanded that the Election Commission of India should take "swift action" against people using religion for political ends and possibly disqualify them from holding political office.
It said a government that is formed on the premise of religion or which has religious issues on its political agenda must also be barred.
The incorporation of religious agenda within political manifestos or electoral promises should be made an electoral offence and should incur summary disqualification for the individual or for the political parties, it added.
All questions and answers are there in the report: Liberhan
Chandigarh: Shortly after his report on Babri Masjid demolition was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, Justice (retd) Manmohan Singh Liberhan said it carried "all questions and answers" relating to the razing of the structure on December 6, 1992.
"The report is self explanatory as it is a comprehensive document," he told reporters outside his residence here.
"All the questions and answers are there in the report," he added.
Justice Liberhan also said that the mediapersons should read the full report before posing questions to him.
"First you (mediapersons) read the report and then come to me with specific queries if you have any," he said.
The publication of excerpts of the report of the Commission of Inquiry had rocked Parliament on Monday. The Union Cabinet had earlier on Tuesday decided that the report will be tabled in Parliament after the Question Hour.
-- PTI
Police, officials executors of Sangh Parivar designs: Babri panel
New Delhi: Bureaucrats and police officers in Uttar Pradesh remained "deaf, dumb and blind" in the run up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Liberhan Commission has said in its report.
"The could have at least attempted to stem the tide of communalism and the rape of democracy. But they chose to remain deaf, dumb and blind throughout and instead became a willing part of the cartel," Justice M.S. Liberhan has said in his voluminous 1,000-page report on the demolition.
"The police and the bureaucrats of the state not just turned a blind eye to the misadventures of the polity but actively connived and curried favour with the chief minister and the Sangh Parivar by systematically paralysing the state machinery. Their sins are highlighted by their being rewarded with plum postings after the demolition as well as tickets for contesting elections," the report said.
The one-man panel that has held several bureaucrats individually culpable for the demolition and for promoting communal discord said "the police and the administration were the executors of the designs of the RSS, VHP, BJP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena etc".
In the conclusion chapter of the report, Liberhan has said that the "decay and erosion in the values of the civil service were all too apparent in Uttar Pradesh in the years leading up to 1992".
"I have no hesitation in holding that they became a part and parcel of the political parties governing at a particular point of time..."
-- IANS
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