Liberhan Commission
Encyclopedia
The Liberhan Commission (Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry) was a long-running inquiry commissioned by the Indian government
to investigate the destruction of the disputed structure Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. Led by retired High Court Judge M S Liberhan
, it was formed on 16 December 1992 by an order of the Indian Home Union Ministry
after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December and the riots in Ayodhya. The Commission was originally mandated to submit its report within three months. Extensions were given 48 times, and after a delay of 17 years, the one-man commission submitted the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
on 30 June 2009. In November 2009, a day after a newspaper published the allegedly leaked contents of the report, the report was tabled in the Indian parliament
by the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram.
, and Delhi
. The mosque was constructed in 1527 by order of Babur
, the first Mughal
emperor of India. Before the 1940s, the mosque was called Masjid-i Janmasthan("mosque of the birthplace").Babur's commander-in-chief, Mir Baqi, allegedly destroyed an existing temple at the site which commemorated thebirthplace of Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and ruler of Ayodhya. The Babri Mosque was one of the largest mosques in Uttar Pradesh, a state in India with some 31 million Muslims. Although there were several older mosques in the city of Ayodhya, an area with a substantial Muslim population, including the Hazrat Bal Mosque constructed by the Shariqi kings, the Babri Mosque became the largest, because of the importance of the disputed site. The political, historical and socio-religious debate over the history and location of the Babri Mosque and whether a previous temple was demolished or modified to create it, is known as the Ayodhya Debate
.
(80 million rupees), and wrote the report on the sequence of events leading to the destruction of the Babri mosque by Hindu mobs on 6 December 1992 and the other issues mentioned in the terms of reference.
Appointed by former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao two weeks after the demolition on 6 December 1992, to ward off criticism against his government for having failed to protect the mosque, the commission in August 2005 finished hearing its last witness Kalyan Singh – who was Uttar Pradesh chief minister at the time of the demolition and was dismissed soon after.
In 16 years of its proceedings, the commission recorded statements of several politicians, bureaucrats and police officials including Kalyan Singh
, late Narasimha Rao
, former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and his colleagues Murli Manohar Joshi
and Uma Bharati as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav
.
Top bureaucrats and police officials of Uttar Pradesh, the then district magistrate R.N. Srivastava and Senior Superintendent of Police D.B. Roy of Ayodhya also recorded their statements on the demolition. In all, the Commission examined one hundred witnesses including
Four years ago, the hearings of the Commission concluded but not before a controversy broke out with the sole Commission's Counsel Anupam Gupta dissociating himself from it owing to personal differences with Justice Liberhan.
Advani, Joshi, Bharti and Kalyan Singh
, who was the BJP Chief Minister at the time of demolition, appeared before the Commission as witnesses. Kalyan Singh apppeared only after the Delhi High Court lifted a stay order on his deposition.
Others against whom criminal cases are pending in the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya included VHP leader Ashok Singhal and Bajrang Dal's Vinay Katiyar.
Even before the findings of the Commission were out, Congress and BJP leaders clashed over the issue.
before being made available to the legislature. It indicted top Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leaders as being actively involved in the meticulous planning of the demolition of the mosque. It was a day of angry exchanges in parliament, and cries of "Shame, shame!" in the Lok Sabha
as the opposition accused the Home Ministry of deliberately leaking the report. The Parliament session had to be adjourned for the day. Parliament delayed discussion of the report and the accompanying Action Taken Report (ATR), which contained mostly recommendations, until 22 December 2009.
The report was finally discussed and debated in the Parliament after a delay caused by demands from some members of the Parliament for the Hindi translated version of the report. The Lok Sabha debated the report on 8 November 2009 and the Rajya Sabha followed on the 10 and 11 November.
The report holds 68 people culpable, including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi
, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and more critically, Kalyan Singh
, the then-Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
. The report accused the RSS
of being the chief architect of the demolition and names it as the core of the Sangh Parivar.
The Commission has identified the Kalyan Singh
-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh as the key to the execution of the conspiracy to demolish Babri Masjid. Justice M S Liberhan termed Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi as pseudo-moderates, pretending to keep a distance from the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign when they were actually aware of the whole conspiracy. The report said, "They have violated the trust of the people.... There can be no greater betrayal or crime in a democracy and this Commission has no hesitation in condemning these pseudo-moderates for their sins of omission".
, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
during the mosque’s demolition, has come in for harsh criticism in the report. He is accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the mosque’s demolition in Ayodhya.
Indicting the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the one-man commission said in its report: "Kalyan Singh's government was the essential component needed by the Sangh Parivar for its purposes. Kalyan Singh lived up to the expectations of the Parivar".
The commission’s report in effect says Singh and his Cabinet allowed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) to directly run his government. It states that the government had "systematically and in a pre-planned manner removed inconvenient bureaucrats from positions of power, dismantled and diluted the security apparatus and infrastructure, lied consistently to the high court and the Supreme Court of India and to the people of India to evade constitutional governance and thus betrayed the confidence of the electorate".
The Liberhan Commission satated about the demolition:
To the commission’s observation that the demolition was pre-planned, Chapter 1: page no 15, para 7.4 of the report wherein it admits: “No evidence, lead or information was provided to the commission with respect to the conspiracy or pre-planning or the joint common enterprise by any of these counsels... (of the Muslim organisations)”.
Moreover, the commission noted (at page 782, para 130.24) that, “...Home Secretary Godbole stated that there was no information of planning and as such it could not be inferred that there was a conspiracy of the Congress and BJP for demolition.”
"The chief minister and his cabinet were the proverbial insiders who caused the collapse of the entire system."
Singh allegedly maintained a "studied silence" even at the height of the crisis in December 1992 and "refused to allow even a single measure which might impede the Ayodhya campaign or prevent the assault on the disputed structures, the journalists or the innocent people."
He allegedly did not direct the police "to use force or resort to firing to chase away the miscreants or to save the lives of those wretched innocents..." even though he was alerted that the mosque had been demolished and rioters were attacking Muslims in Ayodhya.
"The wanton violence against human life and property continued unabated and even at that late stage, the chief minister did not use the central forces which could have been swiftly deployed", the report further states.
Uma Bharti, Govindacharya, Kalyan Singh and Shanker Singh Vaghela, all of whom were members of the BJP then, are held primarily responsible for the destruction of the mosque and the report says that they could have prevented the assault.Senior BJP leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani
and Murli Manohar Joshi
are called “pseudo-moderates”. The report holds them intellectually and ideologically responsible for the mosque’s destruction. The report says that they gave false assurances to court, people and the nation.Vajpayee
, Prime Minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance
, was not present on 6 December 1992 when the mosque was brought down, but the report says it cannot be assumed that Vajpayee, Advani and others did not know of the designs of the Sangh Parivar.
The Report, headed by Justice Liberhan, contained no criticism of the 1992 Indian government and then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. and supports Rao's stand that legally and constitutionally, the central government could not impose President's Rule in the state of Uttar Pradesh in December 1992.
The report submitted by Justice Liberhan has come under severe criticism for being biased and rhetorical in nature. It has been pointed out that, The report also noted (in para 18.3 on page 63) that “although, there was no order restraining the Muslims from going to the disputed structure or from offering namaz therein either by the judiciary or from the administration, yet namaz was not offered at the disputed structure since 1934. No processions were taken out inside the disputed structure nor any grave dug there about.”
Justice Liberhan has agreed that “Ayodhya is accepted in popular Hindu tradition as the birth place of Lord Rama and is therefore regarded as a holy and historical city” and “ancient Ayodhya was traditionally the epitome of Hindu life, culture and a paradigm of coexistence of a multi-religious society. It was a peaceful place with a regular influx of visitors, pilgrims, sadhus and sants, monks, travellers, tourists.”
BJP president Rajnath Singh will open the debate on the Liberhan Commission report in the Lok Sabha while Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley is expected to lead the party charge in the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha debated the report on December 1, 2009 and the Rajya Sabha on 7 December 2009. The BJP had initially decided to field Sushma Swaraj as the lead speaker in the Lower House, but she will now be the second speaker on the issue. The performance of its star speakers in both Houses will be keenly watched by the RSS, say party sources.While the initial plan would have seen the quartet of Delhi BJP leaders — Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, in addition to Venkaiah Naidu, and Ananth Kumar — holding forth on the Ayodhya debate
, sources say that Rajnath, whose term as party president technically ends on November 26, 2009, “didn't want to be left out of the debate”.
Speaking in the Parliament, Jaitley led the charge against the report and against Justice Liberhan personally. Jaitley suggested that Justice Liberhan may not have actually authored the report and reiterating what Sushma Swaraj had read out in the Lok Sabha, citing from page 999 of the report, commented that Justice Liberhan had credited Commission's Counsel Harpreet Singh Giani
with helping with the analysis, conclusions, editing and language and therefore called it the "Liberhan-Giani" report. He charged the report with "factual hallucinations". He cited the incorrect date of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination as well as the inclusion of the names of some historians in the report as evidence. RSS.
The BJP's iconography
usually presents L.K. Advani as the hardliner and A.B. Vajpayee as the liberal
consensus- builder. He is packaged as the poet-politician, a man often out of sync with the inner core of his party, a man who never connected with the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, who tried to clip the wings of Narendra Modi
, who actually made a bid for Muslim votes.
Vajpayee is considered the ultimate pundit, one who had mastered the art of moral [ambiguities and dualism
inherent in the great Indian traditions. Justice Liberhan gave it another name when he called him a “pseudo-moderate
”. It is a interesting phrase to use for a leader of a party that had coined the term "pseudo-secularist". The immediate joke in political circles is that Justice Liberhan took a very long time to discover what RSS/BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya apparently said years ago—that Vajpayee was a “mukhauta” or a mask.
In 1992 little over 12 hours before the Babri Masjid (on 5 December 1992) was demolished,Vajpayee gave a speech but there was no reference to the Babri Masjid in his speech as such.Yet, there are some curious words that are open to interpretation. "The Supreme Court
has allowed bhajan-kirtan. One man cannot perform bhajan
alone. And many people need to gather for kirtan
. And kirtan cannot be performed standing up. How long can we stand?" Now comes the extraordinary punchline: "Sharp stones are emerging from the ground. No one can sit on them. The ground has to be levelled (Zameen ko samtal karna padega)." Vajpayee goes along with the mood of the crowd. "I have heard that because of the excitement of the karsevaks and because of the large crowds already at Ayodhya, it has been difficult for many to even walk in Ayodhya." Then he adds: "I have been instructed not to visit Ayodhya and I shall abide by this. I have no wish to visit the court and get tried in any case. The court has also decided to give their verdict on 11 December (1992). I shall not criticise the court."
Yet, Vajpayee goes on to make his own interpretation of the court's instructions. "I will tell you the arth (meaning) of the Supreme Court verdict. It does not mean we have to stop kar seva. Actually, the Supreme Court has given us the right to continue kar seva. Rokne ka to sawal hi nahin hai (There is no question of stopping us). Tomorrow we will not be violating any court order if we perform kar seva. It is however true that the Supreme Court has ruled that till the Lucknow bench announces its decision, you people cannot do mandir nirman (construction of temple)."
The Liberhan Report, which assigns responsibility for the demolition includes Vajpayee on a list of 68 people responsible for "leading the country to the brink of communal discord. The Congress
says there's little doubt that Vajpayee knew what was about to unfold when he gave that speech. "We cannot forget the day before the demolition... of Vajpayee's statement of sharp stones," says Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan.It is fairly biting about Vajpayee. Noting that he was not in Ayodhya during the demolition of the mosque, it says there were obvious attempts that some leaders were "kept out to preserve secular credentials." Suggesting that Vajpayee cannot be excused, the report says, "The Babri demolition cartel was supported by icons of movement like Advani
, Murli Manohar Joshi
and Vajpayee."
In an interview with Outlook
magazine, Vajpayee had the transcript and VCD of his own speech placed on a table by his side. He had watched the recording earlier that afternoon. He often picked up the transcript to stress that there was nothing he had said in his speech that could be questioned in a court of law. He pointed out that the speech was made in a certain context. "There was no plan to demolish the Babri structure. Yes, everyone felt a temple should be built. Kaise banega, is par behas thi (there were arguments about how this would be achieved). "Vajpayee was also clear that "mera Ayodhya andolan mein zyada role nahin tha (I did not have much of a role in the Ayodhya debate
)". Questions about his so-called "differences" with Advani over Ayodhya, and Narendra Modi
over the Gujarat riots, were brushed away with a smile. "But Atalji didn't you always keep an exit route for yourself when you were put under pressure by the Parivar(Sangh Parivar
)? He did not respond.
But the references to Vajpayee have given the BJP some much-needed ammunition to challenge the report. After all, the same Justice Liberhan who finds Vajpayee culpable didn't ever summon him during the 17-year inquiry. Constitutional experts say if anyone's looking for a weakness in the report this could be it.
If findings have to be given against a person, he has to be heard. That's law, and the law says such persons should be heard. So if remarks are made against Vajpayee, any adverse remarks will not be legal. Vajpayee can challenge the finding... in court," explains P.P. Rao
, Constitutional Expert.
Former Additional Solicitor
General R K Trivedi on Tuesday said the indictment of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by the Liberhan Commission was "legally wrong".Talking to reporters here, Trivedi expressed surprise over the figuring of Vajpayee's name in the list of those indicted by the Commission.It was "legally wrong" to include the name of a person without hearing his viewpoint, the former law officer said.Trivedi, who was the Additional Solicitor General during the NDA government, said the Commission had rejected the plea for summoning Vajpayee for questioning.
Under these circumstances, the figuring of Vajpayee's name had come as a surprise, he said.
In 2004, Mohammad Aslam, alias Bhure, one of the petitioners, moved an application in the Liberhan Commission (now in the final stages of preparing its much-awaited report on the Babri demolition) that Vajpayee should also be questioned for his knowledge of the larger conspiracy. The commission has yet to take a decision on Bhure's plea.Lending more ammunition to the BJP is IB Singh, who represented officials charged in court with the demolition of the mosque. He says, "I made a request to the commission of Inquiry- so did Mohd Aslam Bhure, who represented the minority members- to summon Mr. Vajpayee... but no orders were passed. Our petitions were not even heard" The BJP also points out that the Liberhan Report indicts other party leaders it never summoned, including Pramod Mahajan
, Lalji Tandon
and Govindacharya.
Though Vajpayee was a known RSS member,he was apparently a out of place moderate
in BJP. Perhaps the BJP wished Hindu
awakening from this incident,but they also assumed it could mean legal trouble.The party needed a moderate face if they wished to come to power.
Vajpayee's name in this incident not only surprised his followers,but also his opponents who disagreed with his policies but thought of him as a man of high morals.It is a compulsive conspiracy theory
. But there is not enough hard evidence to prove it conclusively. On the other hand, the evidence so far does not disprove it either. The Ayodhya debate
remains as open-ended and oblique as many of Vajpayee's statements.
Claiming that the UPA government did not intend to table the full report as it indicts the then Congress government of P V Narasimha Rao, Deputy Leader of BJP in Lok Sabha
Sushma Swaraj
said the Home Ministry leaked the report to divert attention from the issues being raised by a united opposition.Recently the BJP has been raising the issue of rising prices of essential commodities.
"This is a planned leak. It is a motivated leak. The first motivation for leaking the report is the unity in opposition on the sugarcane price issue which the government wanted to break. This unity would have continued on price rise and other issues," Swaraj said.
The senior BJP leader further alleged that the government wanted to divert attention from the opposition its plan of raising Madhu Koda and 2G
Spectrum allocation scams in Parliament.
BJP President Rajnath Singh
accused the government of "selectively leaking" the Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition to the media with the aim of "polarising" voters ahead of the assembly elections in Jharkhand
.
"The selective leakage was intentional. A report of any commission is traditionally placed on the first day of the Parliament session. The government could have placed it in the House in July as the Liberhan Commission report was given to the government on 30 June," he told reporters.
(BJP) also stated that millions of Hindus in the country want Ram temple.
Addressing mediapersons at the party headquarter in New Delhi, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said, "We want a Ram temple. There should be a constructive solution."
Prasad also claimed that BJP leaders had tried to save the structure and that the party has evidence of that.
Earlier, reacting to the report, former BJP leader Uma Bharti, who was in Ayodhya on the day of the demolition, said that the party should come clean over the issue.
"Babri report should be published and BJP should come clean over it. "I am not apologetic at all, I am willing to be hanged for my role. I want Ram Temple, but I didn't want the mosque to be destroyed that way". She also said that it was difficult to pinpoint people responsible for mosque demolition.
The BJP termed the Justice M S Liberhan Commission as politically motivated and charged the Congress with providing the "cushion" for demolition of the controversial structure at Ayodhya.
Continuing the tirade against Justice Liberhan Commission and the ATR tabled in Parliament recently, state BJP President and a member of parliament
Radha Mohan Singh alleged that the findings of the Commission were "perverse and ill-founded".
In fact, the Congress should be blamed for the demolition as the Congress-led government had opened the locks of the Ram Mandir, organised the shilanayas of the temple at the controversial site thereby providing a "cushion to Ram sevaks" to demolish the controversial structure, Singh claimed.
The Sangh Parivar
is a "highly successful and corporatised model of a political party" and as the Ayodhya campaign demonstrated, has developed a highly efficient organisational structure, the Liberhan Commission said in its report.
It said the BJP "was and remains an appendage of the RSS, which had the purpose only of providing an acceptable veneer to the less popular decisions and a facade for the brash members of the Sangh Parivar".
The Commission,observed, "The blame or the credit for the entire temple construction movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to the Sangh Parivar".
It noted that the Sangh Parivar
is an "extensive and widespread organic body", which encompasses organisations, which address and assimilate just about every type of social, professional and other demographic grouping of individuals.
"Each time, a new demographic group has emerged, the Sangh Parivar has hived off some of its RSS inner-core leadership to harness that group and bring it within the fold, enhancing the voter base of the Parivar."
at Ayodhya was planned 10 months in advance by Hindu extremist leaders of Rashtriya Sevak Sang (RSS), Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The author, a former Intelligence Bureau
Joint Director, Maloy Krishna Dhar in his book "Open Secrets-India's intelligence unveiled" pointed out that the blue print for demolition of the mosque was drawn in a meeting held in February 1992 attended by leaders of the extremist Hindu groups.
The leaders agreed to work together.They always maintained that demolition was unprecedented and top leaders had tried to hold back the Karsevaks. He goes on to say that in a meeting on the previous day,the RSS, VHP, BJP and Shiv Sena
leaders there was "silent resoluteness and agreement that Ayodhya offered a unique opportunity to take the Hindutva wave to the peak for deriving political benefit. The iron was hot and this was the time to hit."
Dhar merged with the huge crowd as a journalist and found Shiv Sena activists engaged in vandalism and RSS members inflaming everyone." L.K. Advani had spat fire from the pulpit
but he failed to control the flames. Taped videos substantiated that he was progenitor of the tsunami effect that he failed to control at the vital moment of destiny," says Dhar claiming to have made a videotape and 70 still photos.
-led-BJP government in power in Uttar Pradesh
or the Congress
regime at Centre then, he said he was present at Ayodhya and wanted to construct the Ram Temple at an undisputed place but they could not do so as the government men demolished Babri Mosque on 6 December 1992.Sudershan, who spoke in a three-day function of RSS Madhya Bharat Pranth, said that under a conspiracy, the names of the Hindu Organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal
(BD) were dragged in bringing down the structure.
He contested Liberhan Commission's claim that demolition of the Babri Mosque was planned and charged "dilly-dally" by the then government of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was responsible for the incident.
"It was not a planned incident. Because of the dilly-dallying attitude by the then Prime Minister and delay in court judgements, things went out of control as lakhs of people gathered at Ayodhya for kar seva," Sudarshan told a press conference.
He claimed when the people, who had climbed the canopy of the disputed structure, were unable to break it with heavy hammers and 'saabal' (long iron rod), the armed forces personnel present there caused the damage to its walls by triggering an explosive.Once the walls collapsed, the entire canopy of the Babri mosque caved in, he said.
He claimed a powerful Congress leader of Maharashtra, whose name he did not disclose, had told him at senior BJP leader late K R Malkani
's house in Delhi that the party had a plan to dislodge the government headed by Narasimha Rao
"in the name of temple movement so that he could replace him"
While K C Sudarshan said this, again after two days, RSS, the mother organization of Bharatiya Janata Party
, on Tuesday owned the Ayodhya movement but refused to apologise about what happened in Ayodhya in 1992 which led to demolition of the Babri mosque.
Ram Madhav,a RSS leader and former spokesperson of the Sangh said on a private channel,"We fully own up the movement. We mobilized people. People should respect the sentiment of crores of people.We are not going to apologise. Our agitation echoed the sentiment of the people at the time. It was a spontaneous act of anger by people," Madhav added.
"Reports like that of the Liberhan Commission come and go. But, the Hindu culture, which takes pride in its heritage and protects its places of worship, has been in place for ages and will remain so for ever," VHP leader Praveen Togadia
said."Any symbolic structure left by an invader in Akhand Bharat is a national shame. And the demolition of Babri mosque was the proudest moment for Hindus," he said in a statement.Togadia asserted the VHP was committed to building a great Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and was ready to make any sacrifice for achieving this.
"A magnificent temple will be built at the site. It is a socio-religious, cultural and legal right of the Hindus," the VHP secretary general said.
The VHP pointed out that in para 158.3, the commission says it(Ayodhya debate
) “...never became a movement...” whereas in para 158.9 & 159.10, it contradicted itself with the contention as to “entire process of the movement” and “...leaders of the movement”.
The VHP says the commission failed to make any adverse comment on certain individuals despite observing in para 26.2 on page 88 that “...It is noteworthy that no member of the Muslim community from Ayodhya was a member of the Babri Masjid Action Committee or other committee protesting the opening of locks at the disputed structure. Sultan Shahabuddin Owaisi, a Member of Parliament
from Hyderabad, challenged the opening of locks along with some others became a forerunner for taking on the Hindu organisation”
The VHP said that after more than 40 extensions “during seventeen long years and wasting taxpayers’ money the commission had prepared a useless report.” The commission declared many prominent personalities as culpable
without giving them a chance of hearing.“It is shameful that in its long list of culprits one had already been died before the date of incident and seventeen thereafter before the submission of its report. The adverse comments made towards the apex court of the country, media, head of the State (Governor) and other respectable segments of the society are highly unacceptable,” it said.
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
to investigate the destruction of the disputed structure Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. Led by retired High Court Judge M S Liberhan
M S Liberhan
Manmohan Singh Liberhan is a retired Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. For 17 years he headed the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry, which prepared a report on the Babri Mosque demolition, according to it, the events of December 6, 1992, in Ayodhya were "neither spontaneous nor...
, it was formed on 16 December 1992 by an order of the Indian Home Union Ministry
Minister for Home Affairs (India)
The Home Minister, or more properly the Minister for Home Affairs, is a position in the Indian Cabinet, at both State and Union levels. The Home Ministry is one of the most important, powerful and high profile ministry after the Prime Minister...
after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December and the riots in Ayodhya. The Commission was originally mandated to submit its report within three months. Extensions were given 48 times, and after a delay of 17 years, the one-man commission submitted the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
on 30 June 2009. In November 2009, a day after a newspaper published the allegedly leaked contents of the report, the report was tabled in the Indian parliament
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
by the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram.
Dispute
The Babri Mosque (Hindi: बाबरी मस्जिद, Urdu: بابری مسجد), Babri Masjid or Mosque of Babur was a mosque in Ayodhya, on Ramkot Hill ("Rama's fort"). It was destroyed in 1992 when a political rally developed into a riot involving 150,000 people, despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court by the rally organisers that the mosque would not be harmed. More than 2000 people were killed in ensuing riots in many major Indian cities including MumbaiMumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, and Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. The mosque was constructed in 1527 by order of Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
, the first Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor of India. Before the 1940s, the mosque was called Masjid-i Janmasthan("mosque of the birthplace").Babur's commander-in-chief, Mir Baqi, allegedly destroyed an existing temple at the site which commemorated thebirthplace of Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and ruler of Ayodhya. The Babri Mosque was one of the largest mosques in Uttar Pradesh, a state in India with some 31 million Muslims. Although there were several older mosques in the city of Ayodhya, an area with a substantial Muslim population, including the Hazrat Bal Mosque constructed by the Shariqi kings, the Babri Mosque became the largest, because of the importance of the disputed site. The political, historical and socio-religious debate over the history and location of the Babri Mosque and whether a previous temple was demolished or modified to create it, is known as the Ayodhya Debate
Ayodhya debate
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, located in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh...
.
Terms and reference of the Commission
To make an inquiry with respect to the following matters:- The sequence of events leading to, and all the facts and circumstances relating to, the occurrences in the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid complex at Ayodhya on 6 December 1992 involving the destruction of the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure;
- The role played by the Chief Minister, Members of the Council of Ministers, officials of the Government of Uttar Pradesh and by the individuals, concerned organisations and agencies in, or in connection with, the destruction of the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure;
- The deficiencies in security measures and other arrangements as prescribed or operated in practice by Government of Uttar Pradesh which might have contributed to the events that took place in the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid complex, Ayodhya town and Faizabad on 6 December 1992;
- The sequence of events leading to, and all the facts and circumstances relating to, the assault on media persons at Ayodhya on 6 December 1992; and
- Any other matters related to the subject of Inquiry.
Duration and expenses
The one-man panel, one of the country's longest running inquiry commissions, cost the government Rs.8 croreCrore
A crore is a unit in the Indian number system equal to ten million , or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan....
(80 million rupees), and wrote the report on the sequence of events leading to the destruction of the Babri mosque by Hindu mobs on 6 December 1992 and the other issues mentioned in the terms of reference.
Appointed by former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao two weeks after the demolition on 6 December 1992, to ward off criticism against his government for having failed to protect the mosque, the commission in August 2005 finished hearing its last witness Kalyan Singh – who was Uttar Pradesh chief minister at the time of the demolition and was dismissed soon after.
In 16 years of its proceedings, the commission recorded statements of several politicians, bureaucrats and police officials including Kalyan Singh
Kalyan Singh
Kalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
, late Narasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao or Narasimharao is one of the Indian names.* Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao served as the 10th Prime Minister of India.* Modireddy Venkat Narasimha Rao, is a former Indian cricketer....
, former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and his colleagues Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi was the Union Human Resources Development minister of India in the NDA government. Joshi is a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party...
and Uma Bharati as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav in Hindi मुलायम सिंह यादव is an Indian politician and has influence mainly in Uttar Pradesh state of India...
.
Top bureaucrats and police officials of Uttar Pradesh, the then district magistrate R.N. Srivastava and Senior Superintendent of Police D.B. Roy of Ayodhya also recorded their statements on the demolition. In all, the Commission examined one hundred witnesses including
- Mark TullyMark TullySir William "Mark" Tully, OBE is the former Chief of Bureau, BBC, New Delhi. He worked for BBC for a period of 30 years before resigning in July 1994. He held the position of Chief of Bureau, BBC, Delhi for 20 years. Since 1994 he has been working as a freelance journalist and broadcaster based in...
, BBC Journalist - PR Kumaramangalam, Union Minister
- SB Chavan, Union Home Minister
- Uma BhartiUma BhartiUma Ragini Bharti , is an Indian politician. She was born in Tikamgarh District, Madhya Pradesh to a religious Lodhi Rajput family and from a very young age, started holding discourses on Indian Epics.Her father was an atheist...
, BJP leader - KS Sudarshan, RSSRashtriya Swayamsevak SanghRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
leader - Jyoti BasuJyoti BasuJyoti Basu was an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India from West Bengal, India. He served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, making him the longest-serving Chief Minister of any Indian state. Basu was a member of the CPI Politburo from the time of the...
, CPI(M) leader, member of the National Integration Council - Murli Manohar JoshiMurli Manohar JoshiMurli Manohar Joshi was the Union Human Resources Development minister of India in the NDA government. Joshi is a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party...
, President, Bharatiya Janta Party, member of the Rajya Sabha - LK Advani, Leader, Bharatiya Janta Party
- Vinay Katyar, Member of Parliament, Bharatiya Janta Party
- Vishnu Hari Dalmia, President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
- VP Singh, Former Prime Minister, leader of Janta Dal
- Kalyan SinghKalyan SinghKalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
, the then Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh - PV Narasimha RaoNarasimha RaoNarasimha Rao or Narasimharao is one of the Indian names.* Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao served as the 10th Prime Minister of India.* Modireddy Venkat Narasimha Rao, is a former Indian cricketer....
, Prime Minister of India - Tej Shankar, Supreme Court's observer in Ayodhya
- Arjun Singh, Union Cabinet Minister, Union Human Resource and Development
- Swami Sachidanand Sakshi, alias Sakshiji Maharaj, BJP Member of Parliament, Acharya of the Nirmal Panchayati Akhara, Haridwar
- Ashok Singhal, Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
- Kalraj MishraKalraj MishraKalraj Mishra is an Indian politician and a senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party . He was President of Uttar Pradesh state unit of BJP.Born in 1941 in Ghazipur District of Uttar Pradesh he passed M.A. from Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi. He joined politics and held many party positions at state...
, President, Uttar Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Janta Party - Mahant Paramhans Ramchander Das, President, Ram Janambhoomi Nyas
- Mulayam Singh YadavMulayam Singh YadavMulayam Singh Yadav in Hindi मुलायम सिंह यादव is an Indian politician and has influence mainly in Uttar Pradesh state of India...
, Former Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh - Madhav Godbole, Union Home Secretary
Four years ago, the hearings of the Commission concluded but not before a controversy broke out with the sole Commission's Counsel Anupam Gupta dissociating himself from it owing to personal differences with Justice Liberhan.
Advani, Joshi, Bharti and Kalyan Singh
Kalyan Singh
Kalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
, who was the BJP Chief Minister at the time of demolition, appeared before the Commission as witnesses. Kalyan Singh apppeared only after the Delhi High Court lifted a stay order on his deposition.
Others against whom criminal cases are pending in the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya included VHP leader Ashok Singhal and Bajrang Dal's Vinay Katiyar.
Even before the findings of the Commission were out, Congress and BJP leaders clashed over the issue.
The contents of the report
On 23 November 2009, the media began reporting on the contents of the report, which had been leakedNews leak
A news leak is a disclosure of embargoed information in advance of its official release, or the unsanctioned release of confidential information.-Types of news leaks:...
before being made available to the legislature. It indicted top Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
(BJP) leaders as being actively involved in the meticulous planning of the demolition of the mosque. It was a day of angry exchanges in parliament, and cries of "Shame, shame!" in the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
as the opposition accused the Home Ministry of deliberately leaking the report. The Parliament session had to be adjourned for the day. Parliament delayed discussion of the report and the accompanying Action Taken Report (ATR), which contained mostly recommendations, until 22 December 2009.
The report was finally discussed and debated in the Parliament after a delay caused by demands from some members of the Parliament for the Hindi translated version of the report. The Lok Sabha debated the report on 8 November 2009 and the Rajya Sabha followed on the 10 and 11 November.
The report holds 68 people culpable, including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi was the Union Human Resources Development minister of India in the NDA government. Joshi is a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party...
, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
and more critically, Kalyan Singh
Kalyan Singh
Kalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
, the then-Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
. The report accused the RSS
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
of being the chief architect of the demolition and names it as the core of the Sangh Parivar.
The Commission has identified the Kalyan Singh
Kalyan Singh
Kalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh as the key to the execution of the conspiracy to demolish Babri Masjid. Justice M S Liberhan termed Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi as pseudo-moderates, pretending to keep a distance from the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign when they were actually aware of the whole conspiracy. The report said, "They have violated the trust of the people.... There can be no greater betrayal or crime in a democracy and this Commission has no hesitation in condemning these pseudo-moderates for their sins of omission".
Findings
Kalyan SinghKalyan Singh
Kalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
during the mosque’s demolition, has come in for harsh criticism in the report. He is accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the mosque’s demolition in Ayodhya.
Indicting the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the one-man commission said in its report: "Kalyan Singh's government was the essential component needed by the Sangh Parivar for its purposes. Kalyan Singh lived up to the expectations of the Parivar".
The commission’s report in effect says Singh and his Cabinet allowed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
(RSS) to directly run his government. It states that the government had "systematically and in a pre-planned manner removed inconvenient bureaucrats from positions of power, dismantled and diluted the security apparatus and infrastructure, lied consistently to the high court and the Supreme Court of India and to the people of India to evade constitutional governance and thus betrayed the confidence of the electorate".
The Liberhan Commission satated about the demolition:
- “The preparation was accomplished with phenomenal secrecy, was technically flawless with consistency and assured results.... The theme was power. It attracted clusters of young men to support the hidden agenda. Leaders know how passions are aroused and how to prevent the same; they however always see what would be beneficial to them rather than what would be good for the nation. This is what happened in Ayodhya.”
To the commission’s observation that the demolition was pre-planned, Chapter 1: page no 15, para 7.4 of the report wherein it admits: “No evidence, lead or information was provided to the commission with respect to the conspiracy or pre-planning or the joint common enterprise by any of these counsels... (of the Muslim organisations)”.
Moreover, the commission noted (at page 782, para 130.24) that, “...Home Secretary Godbole stated that there was no information of planning and as such it could not be inferred that there was a conspiracy of the Congress and BJP for demolition.”
"The chief minister and his cabinet were the proverbial insiders who caused the collapse of the entire system."
Singh allegedly maintained a "studied silence" even at the height of the crisis in December 1992 and "refused to allow even a single measure which might impede the Ayodhya campaign or prevent the assault on the disputed structures, the journalists or the innocent people."
He allegedly did not direct the police "to use force or resort to firing to chase away the miscreants or to save the lives of those wretched innocents..." even though he was alerted that the mosque had been demolished and rioters were attacking Muslims in Ayodhya.
"The wanton violence against human life and property continued unabated and even at that late stage, the chief minister did not use the central forces which could have been swiftly deployed", the report further states.
Uma Bharti, Govindacharya, Kalyan Singh and Shanker Singh Vaghela, all of whom were members of the BJP then, are held primarily responsible for the destruction of the mosque and the report says that they could have prevented the assault.Senior BJP leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani
Lal Krishna Advani
Lal Kishanchand Advani known as Lal Krishna Advani is a Veteran Indian politician. A former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party , which is currently the major opposition party in the Indian Parliament. He also served as a Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004...
and Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi was the Union Human Resources Development minister of India in the NDA government. Joshi is a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party...
are called “pseudo-moderates”. The report holds them intellectually and ideologically responsible for the mosque’s destruction. The report says that they gave false assurances to court, people and the nation.Vajpayee
Vajpayee
Vajpayee or Bajpai is a North Indian Brahmin surname, common, among other places, especially in Lucknow. Brahmins,are further sub categorised as Kanyakubjas, a group that also includes Awasthi, Dixits, Tewari, Tripathi, Agnihotri etc...
, Prime Minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance
National Democratic Alliance (India)
The National Democratic Alliance is a centre-right coalition of political parties in India. At the time of its formation in 1998, it was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and had thirteen constituent parties. Its convenor is Sharad Yadav, and its honorary chairman is former prime minister Atal...
, was not present on 6 December 1992 when the mosque was brought down, but the report says it cannot be assumed that Vajpayee, Advani and others did not know of the designs of the Sangh Parivar.
The Report, headed by Justice Liberhan, contained no criticism of the 1992 Indian government and then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. and supports Rao's stand that legally and constitutionally, the central government could not impose President's Rule in the state of Uttar Pradesh in December 1992.
The report submitted by Justice Liberhan has come under severe criticism for being biased and rhetorical in nature. It has been pointed out that, The report also noted (in para 18.3 on page 63) that “although, there was no order restraining the Muslims from going to the disputed structure or from offering namaz therein either by the judiciary or from the administration, yet namaz was not offered at the disputed structure since 1934. No processions were taken out inside the disputed structure nor any grave dug there about.”
Justice Liberhan has agreed that “Ayodhya is accepted in popular Hindu tradition as the birth place of Lord Rama and is therefore regarded as a holy and historical city” and “ancient Ayodhya was traditionally the epitome of Hindu life, culture and a paradigm of coexistence of a multi-religious society. It was a peaceful place with a regular influx of visitors, pilgrims, sadhus and sants, monks, travellers, tourists.”
BJP president Rajnath Singh will open the debate on the Liberhan Commission report in the Lok Sabha while Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley is expected to lead the party charge in the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha debated the report on December 1, 2009 and the Rajya Sabha on 7 December 2009. The BJP had initially decided to field Sushma Swaraj as the lead speaker in the Lower House, but she will now be the second speaker on the issue. The performance of its star speakers in both Houses will be keenly watched by the RSS, say party sources.While the initial plan would have seen the quartet of Delhi BJP leaders — Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, in addition to Venkaiah Naidu, and Ananth Kumar — holding forth on the Ayodhya debate
Ayodhya debate
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, located in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh...
, sources say that Rajnath, whose term as party president technically ends on November 26, 2009, “didn't want to be left out of the debate”.
Speaking in the Parliament, Jaitley led the charge against the report and against Justice Liberhan personally. Jaitley suggested that Justice Liberhan may not have actually authored the report and reiterating what Sushma Swaraj had read out in the Lok Sabha, citing from page 999 of the report, commented that Justice Liberhan had credited Commission's Counsel Harpreet Singh Giani
Harpreet Singh Giani
-Biography:Harpreet Singh Giani was educated at the DAV College, Chandigarh and after obtaining a law degree from the Panjab University at Chandigarh, was admitted to the bar in 1999...
with helping with the analysis, conclusions, editing and language and therefore called it the "Liberhan-Giani" report. He charged the report with "factual hallucinations". He cited the incorrect date of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination as well as the inclusion of the names of some historians in the report as evidence. RSS.
The Vajpayee angle
Possibly,the most surprising individual name mentioned in the report is that of former Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee.The BJP's iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
usually presents L.K. Advani as the hardliner and A.B. Vajpayee as the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
consensus- builder. He is packaged as the poet-politician, a man often out of sync with the inner core of his party, a man who never connected with the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, who tried to clip the wings of Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...
, who actually made a bid for Muslim votes.
Vajpayee is considered the ultimate pundit, one who had mastered the art of moral [ambiguities and dualism
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
inherent in the great Indian traditions. Justice Liberhan gave it another name when he called him a “pseudo-moderate
Moderate
In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. In recent years, political moderates has gained traction as a buzzword....
”. It is a interesting phrase to use for a leader of a party that had coined the term "pseudo-secularist". The immediate joke in political circles is that Justice Liberhan took a very long time to discover what RSS/BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya apparently said years ago—that Vajpayee was a “mukhauta” or a mask.
In 1992 little over 12 hours before the Babri Masjid (on 5 December 1992) was demolished,Vajpayee gave a speech but there was no reference to the Babri Masjid in his speech as such.Yet, there are some curious words that are open to interpretation. "The Supreme Court
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
has allowed bhajan-kirtan. One man cannot perform bhajan
Bhajan
A Bhajan is any type of Indian devotional song. It has no fixed form: it may be as simple as a mantra or kirtan or as sophisticated as the dhrupad or kriti with music based on classical ragas and talas. It is normally lyrical, expressing love for the Divine...
alone. And many people need to gather for kirtan
Kirtan
Kirtan or Kirtana is call-and-response chanting or "responsory" performed in India's devotional traditions. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankar. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, tablas, the two-headed...
. And kirtan cannot be performed standing up. How long can we stand?" Now comes the extraordinary punchline: "Sharp stones are emerging from the ground. No one can sit on them. The ground has to be levelled (Zameen ko samtal karna padega)." Vajpayee goes along with the mood of the crowd. "I have heard that because of the excitement of the karsevaks and because of the large crowds already at Ayodhya, it has been difficult for many to even walk in Ayodhya." Then he adds: "I have been instructed not to visit Ayodhya and I shall abide by this. I have no wish to visit the court and get tried in any case. The court has also decided to give their verdict on 11 December (1992). I shall not criticise the court."
Yet, Vajpayee goes on to make his own interpretation of the court's instructions. "I will tell you the arth (meaning) of the Supreme Court verdict. It does not mean we have to stop kar seva. Actually, the Supreme Court has given us the right to continue kar seva. Rokne ka to sawal hi nahin hai (There is no question of stopping us). Tomorrow we will not be violating any court order if we perform kar seva. It is however true that the Supreme Court has ruled that till the Lucknow bench announces its decision, you people cannot do mandir nirman (construction of temple)."
The Liberhan Report, which assigns responsibility for the demolition includes Vajpayee on a list of 68 people responsible for "leading the country to the brink of communal discord. The Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
says there's little doubt that Vajpayee knew what was about to unfold when he gave that speech. "We cannot forget the day before the demolition... of Vajpayee's statement of sharp stones," says Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan.It is fairly biting about Vajpayee. Noting that he was not in Ayodhya during the demolition of the mosque, it says there were obvious attempts that some leaders were "kept out to preserve secular credentials." Suggesting that Vajpayee cannot be excused, the report says, "The Babri demolition cartel was supported by icons of movement like Advani
Lal Krishna Advani
Lal Kishanchand Advani known as Lal Krishna Advani is a Veteran Indian politician. A former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party , which is currently the major opposition party in the Indian Parliament. He also served as a Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004...
, Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi
Murli Manohar Joshi was the Union Human Resources Development minister of India in the NDA government. Joshi is a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party...
and Vajpayee."
In an interview with Outlook
Outlook (magazine)
Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies...
magazine, Vajpayee had the transcript and VCD of his own speech placed on a table by his side. He had watched the recording earlier that afternoon. He often picked up the transcript to stress that there was nothing he had said in his speech that could be questioned in a court of law. He pointed out that the speech was made in a certain context. "There was no plan to demolish the Babri structure. Yes, everyone felt a temple should be built. Kaise banega, is par behas thi (there were arguments about how this would be achieved). "Vajpayee was also clear that "mera Ayodhya andolan mein zyada role nahin tha (I did not have much of a role in the Ayodhya debate
Ayodhya debate
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, located in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh...
)". Questions about his so-called "differences" with Advani over Ayodhya, and Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...
over the Gujarat riots, were brushed away with a smile. "But Atalji didn't you always keep an exit route for yourself when you were put under pressure by the Parivar(Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...
)? He did not respond.
But the references to Vajpayee have given the BJP some much-needed ammunition to challenge the report. After all, the same Justice Liberhan who finds Vajpayee culpable didn't ever summon him during the 17-year inquiry. Constitutional experts say if anyone's looking for a weakness in the report this could be it.
If findings have to be given against a person, he has to be heard. That's law, and the law says such persons should be heard. So if remarks are made against Vajpayee, any adverse remarks will not be legal. Vajpayee can challenge the finding... in court," explains P.P. Rao
P.P. Rao
Pavani Parameswara Rao is a Senior Advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India. Widely considered a doyen of Constitutional Law, he has argued a number of landmark cases before the Supreme Court.-Early life:...
, Constitutional Expert.
Former Additional Solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
General R K Trivedi on Tuesday said the indictment of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by the Liberhan Commission was "legally wrong".Talking to reporters here, Trivedi expressed surprise over the figuring of Vajpayee's name in the list of those indicted by the Commission.It was "legally wrong" to include the name of a person without hearing his viewpoint, the former law officer said.Trivedi, who was the Additional Solicitor General during the NDA government, said the Commission had rejected the plea for summoning Vajpayee for questioning.
Under these circumstances, the figuring of Vajpayee's name had come as a surprise, he said.
In 2004, Mohammad Aslam, alias Bhure, one of the petitioners, moved an application in the Liberhan Commission (now in the final stages of preparing its much-awaited report on the Babri demolition) that Vajpayee should also be questioned for his knowledge of the larger conspiracy. The commission has yet to take a decision on Bhure's plea.Lending more ammunition to the BJP is IB Singh, who represented officials charged in court with the demolition of the mosque. He says, "I made a request to the commission of Inquiry- so did Mohd Aslam Bhure, who represented the minority members- to summon Mr. Vajpayee... but no orders were passed. Our petitions were not even heard" The BJP also points out that the Liberhan Report indicts other party leaders it never summoned, including Pramod Mahajan
Pramod Mahajan
Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan was a prominent Indian politician. He was one of the most powerful second generation leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and, at the time of his death, was locked in a power struggle over who would take over the reins of the BJP when the current aging leadership...
, Lalji Tandon
Lalji Tandon
Lalji Tandon is an Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party , known as a protegee of Atal Behari Vajpayee....
and Govindacharya.
Though Vajpayee was a known RSS member,he was apparently a out of place moderate
Moderate
In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. In recent years, political moderates has gained traction as a buzzword....
in BJP. Perhaps the BJP wished Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
awakening from this incident,but they also assumed it could mean legal trouble.The party needed a moderate face if they wished to come to power.
Vajpayee's name in this incident not only surprised his followers,but also his opponents who disagreed with his policies but thought of him as a man of high morals.It is a compulsive conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
. But there is not enough hard evidence to prove it conclusively. On the other hand, the evidence so far does not disprove it either. The Ayodhya debate
Ayodhya debate
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, located in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh...
remains as open-ended and oblique as many of Vajpayee's statements.
BJP opinion
BJP claimed "selective leaks" of the Liberhan Commission report to the media were planned and motivated, saying they had come at a time when the whole opposition was united against the government.Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
Sushma Swaraj
Sushma Swaraj
Sushma Swaraj is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Member of Parliament. She is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha. She is a former union cabinet minister of India and a former Chief Minister of Delhi. Also she served as the Chairperson of the BJP's...
said the Home Ministry leaked the report to divert attention from the issues being raised by a united opposition.Recently the BJP has been raising the issue of rising prices of essential commodities.
"This is a planned leak. It is a motivated leak. The first motivation for leaking the report is the unity in opposition on the sugarcane price issue which the government wanted to break. This unity would have continued on price rise and other issues," Swaraj said.
The senior BJP leader further alleged that the government wanted to divert attention from the opposition its plan of raising Madhu Koda and 2G
2G
2G is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation 2G cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991...
Spectrum allocation scams in Parliament.
BJP President Rajnath Singh
Rajnath Singh
Rajnath Singh is a prominent Indian politician and who has served the country in many capacities. He was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a Cabinet Minister in the NDA regime and became the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the single largest Opposition party in India...
accused the government of "selectively leaking" the Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition to the media with the aim of "polarising" voters ahead of the assembly elections in Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
.
"The selective leakage was intentional. A report of any commission is traditionally placed on the first day of the Parliament session. The government could have placed it in the House in July as the Liberhan Commission report was given to the government on 30 June," he told reporters.
The "other" opinion
The Bharatiya Janata PartyBharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
(BJP) also stated that millions of Hindus in the country want Ram temple.
Addressing mediapersons at the party headquarter in New Delhi, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said, "We want a Ram temple. There should be a constructive solution."
Prasad also claimed that BJP leaders had tried to save the structure and that the party has evidence of that.
Earlier, reacting to the report, former BJP leader Uma Bharti, who was in Ayodhya on the day of the demolition, said that the party should come clean over the issue.
"Babri report should be published and BJP should come clean over it. "I am not apologetic at all, I am willing to be hanged for my role. I want Ram Temple, but I didn't want the mosque to be destroyed that way". She also said that it was difficult to pinpoint people responsible for mosque demolition.
The BJP termed the Justice M S Liberhan Commission as politically motivated and charged the Congress with providing the "cushion" for demolition of the controversial structure at Ayodhya.
Continuing the tirade against Justice Liberhan Commission and the ATR tabled in Parliament recently, state BJP President and a member of parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Radha Mohan Singh alleged that the findings of the Commission were "perverse and ill-founded".
In fact, the Congress should be blamed for the demolition as the Congress-led government had opened the locks of the Ram Mandir, organised the shilanayas of the temple at the controversial site thereby providing a "cushion to Ram sevaks" to demolish the controversial structure, Singh claimed.
RSS, VHP factor
The Liberhan report has been very critical of mass Hindu organizations,especially the RSS. It says that demolition of Babri in Ayodhya has been a longtime objective of the RSS. It accuses RSS of utilizing its large volunteer base to accomplish this task.The RSS has always maintained that the demolition was spontaneous. The report suggests otherwise.The Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...
is a "highly successful and corporatised model of a political party" and as the Ayodhya campaign demonstrated, has developed a highly efficient organisational structure, the Liberhan Commission said in its report.
It said the BJP "was and remains an appendage of the RSS, which had the purpose only of providing an acceptable veneer to the less popular decisions and a facade for the brash members of the Sangh Parivar".
The Commission,observed, "The blame or the credit for the entire temple construction movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to the Sangh Parivar".
It noted that the Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...
is an "extensive and widespread organic body", which encompasses organisations, which address and assimilate just about every type of social, professional and other demographic grouping of individuals.
"Each time, a new demographic group has emerged, the Sangh Parivar has hived off some of its RSS inner-core leadership to harness that group and bring it within the fold, enhancing the voter base of the Parivar."
Open secrets
A book authored by a former senior Indian intelligence officer revealed that demolition of the historic Babri MosqueBabri Mosque
The Babri Mosque , was a mosque in Ayodhya, a city in the Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh, on Ramkot Hill . It was destroyed in 1992 when a political rally developed into a riot involving 150,000 people, despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court by the rally organisers that the mosque...
at Ayodhya was planned 10 months in advance by Hindu extremist leaders of Rashtriya Sevak Sang (RSS), Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The author, a former Intelligence Bureau
Intelligence Bureau (India)
The Intelligence Bureau also known as IB is India's internal intelligence agency and reputedly the world's oldest intelligence agency. It was recast as the Central Intelligence Bureau in 1947 under the Ministry of Home Affairs...
Joint Director, Maloy Krishna Dhar in his book "Open Secrets-India's intelligence unveiled" pointed out that the blue print for demolition of the mosque was drawn in a meeting held in February 1992 attended by leaders of the extremist Hindu groups.
The leaders agreed to work together.They always maintained that demolition was unprecedented and top leaders had tried to hold back the Karsevaks. He goes on to say that in a meeting on the previous day,the RSS, VHP, BJP and Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
leaders there was "silent resoluteness and agreement that Ayodhya offered a unique opportunity to take the Hindutva wave to the peak for deriving political benefit. The iron was hot and this was the time to hit."
Dhar merged with the huge crowd as a journalist and found Shiv Sena activists engaged in vandalism and RSS members inflaming everyone." L.K. Advani had spat fire from the pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
but he failed to control the flames. Taped videos substantiated that he was progenitor of the tsunami effect that he failed to control at the vital moment of destiny," says Dhar claiming to have made a videotape and 70 still photos.
RSS defence
Seeking to distance Hindu organisations from the Babri Mosque demolition, RSS chief K C Sudershan said that the Babri Mosque was demolished by government men and not by the Karsevaks. "The mosque was demolished by the government men and not by the Karsevaks," he said while addressing a gathering of RSS cadre and public at a meeting.Without mentioning whether he was referring to the Kalyan SinghKalyan Singh
Kalayan Singh is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has served 3 times as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.-Role in demolition of Babri Masjid:...
-led-BJP government in power in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
or the Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
regime at Centre then, he said he was present at Ayodhya and wanted to construct the Ram Temple at an undisputed place but they could not do so as the government men demolished Babri Mosque on 6 December 1992.Sudershan, who spoke in a three-day function of RSS Madhya Bharat Pranth, said that under a conspiracy, the names of the Hindu Organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal
Bajrang Dal
The Bajrang Dal , a hardline and militant Hindu organization in India, is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and is based on the ideology of Hindutva. Founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, India, it has since spread throughout India...
(BD) were dragged in bringing down the structure.
He contested Liberhan Commission's claim that demolition of the Babri Mosque was planned and charged "dilly-dally" by the then government of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was responsible for the incident.
"It was not a planned incident. Because of the dilly-dallying attitude by the then Prime Minister and delay in court judgements, things went out of control as lakhs of people gathered at Ayodhya for kar seva," Sudarshan told a press conference.
He claimed when the people, who had climbed the canopy of the disputed structure, were unable to break it with heavy hammers and 'saabal' (long iron rod), the armed forces personnel present there caused the damage to its walls by triggering an explosive.Once the walls collapsed, the entire canopy of the Babri mosque caved in, he said.
He claimed a powerful Congress leader of Maharashtra, whose name he did not disclose, had told him at senior BJP leader late K R Malkani
K R Malkani
K. R. Malkani was Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, India from 2002 till his death on October 27, 2003. He was the Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party from 1991 to 1994. Mr Malkani was an author and a journalist. Born at Hyderabad , then Pakistan on November 19, 1921, he had his...
's house in Delhi that the party had a plan to dislodge the government headed by Narasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao or Narasimharao is one of the Indian names.* Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao served as the 10th Prime Minister of India.* Modireddy Venkat Narasimha Rao, is a former Indian cricketer....
"in the name of temple movement so that he could replace him"
While K C Sudarshan said this, again after two days, RSS, the mother organization of Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
, on Tuesday owned the Ayodhya movement but refused to apologise about what happened in Ayodhya in 1992 which led to demolition of the Babri mosque.
Ram Madhav,a RSS leader and former spokesperson of the Sangh said on a private channel,"We fully own up the movement. We mobilized people. People should respect the sentiment of crores of people.We are not going to apologise. Our agitation echoed the sentiment of the people at the time. It was a spontaneous act of anger by people," Madhav added.
VHP
Putting up a brave face in the wake of Liberhan Commission report, the VHP said the demolition of Babri mosque was the proudest moment for Hindus and asserted it was committed to building a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya."Reports like that of the Liberhan Commission come and go. But, the Hindu culture, which takes pride in its heritage and protects its places of worship, has been in place for ages and will remain so for ever," VHP leader Praveen Togadia
Praveen Togadia
Praveen Togadia is the International General Secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad , Hindu religious organization. A 'Cancer Surgeon' by profession, he was appointed chief instructor of an RSS officers training camp in 1979 at the age 22....
said."Any symbolic structure left by an invader in Akhand Bharat is a national shame. And the demolition of Babri mosque was the proudest moment for Hindus," he said in a statement.Togadia asserted the VHP was committed to building a great Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and was ready to make any sacrifice for achieving this.
"A magnificent temple will be built at the site. It is a socio-religious, cultural and legal right of the Hindus," the VHP secretary general said.
The VHP pointed out that in para 158.3, the commission says it(Ayodhya debate
Ayodhya debate
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, located in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh...
) “...never became a movement...” whereas in para 158.9 & 159.10, it contradicted itself with the contention as to “entire process of the movement” and “...leaders of the movement”.
The VHP says the commission failed to make any adverse comment on certain individuals despite observing in para 26.2 on page 88 that “...It is noteworthy that no member of the Muslim community from Ayodhya was a member of the Babri Masjid Action Committee or other committee protesting the opening of locks at the disputed structure. Sultan Shahabuddin Owaisi, a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
from Hyderabad, challenged the opening of locks along with some others became a forerunner for taking on the Hindu organisation”
The VHP said that after more than 40 extensions “during seventeen long years and wasting taxpayers’ money the commission had prepared a useless report.” The commission declared many prominent personalities as culpable
Culpability
Culpability descends from the Latin concept of fault . The concept of culpability is intimately tied up with notions of agency, freedom and free will...
without giving them a chance of hearing.“It is shameful that in its long list of culprits one had already been died before the date of incident and seventeen thereafter before the submission of its report. The adverse comments made towards the apex court of the country, media, head of the State (Governor) and other respectable segments of the society are highly unacceptable,” it said.
External links
- Report Of The Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry - Full Text in PDF format (126 MB)
- Report of the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry – Full Text in PDF format (Can be downloaded as a single 80MB file or as 5 smaller files), The Hindu (November 24 2009)
- Complete report - TCN News
- The report can be downloaded from here and the ATR from here
- Report in parts from the Ministry of Home Affairs (India) Website http://mha.gov.in/uniquepage.asp?Id_Pk=571