NEW DELHI: The Liberhan report, which took 17 years in the making, virtually blew up in the government’s face on Monday thanks to a media leak.
The opposition BJP, in tandem with the Samajwadi Party and others, stalled both houses of Parliament for what it called “motivated leak”.
The Leader of the Opposition, L.K.Advani, was in his elements, charging the government with consciously and selectively leaking news to a section of the media even while Parliament was in session. The fact that former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee name was also dragged in the report totally unified the BJP.
The decision to table the report on Tuesday was taken at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s behest. Pranab Mukherjee is said to have spoken with the PM, currently in the US. The Prime Minister was unwilling to provide the Opposition with more ammunition to stall Parliament.
The PM was called up after Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not convinced by advice given to her by a section of the Congress core leadership in favour of delaying the tabling of the report till after December 6, the demolition anniversary, on fears that it could lead to a riot-like situation.