NEW DELHI: Seventeen years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the report of the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry will be tabled in Parliament, Home Minister P Chidambaram promised on Monday as a political storm engulfed both Houses following reports that the probe had indicted top BJP leaders.
According to a report published in The Indian Express, the Liberhan Commission indicted former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, his deputy L K Advani and senior BJP leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi. This was followed by NDTV saying it had access to the probe report which labelled the 1992 demolition "tailor made" and also blamed Uttar Pradesh's then BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh. Another report said Vajpayee had not been indicted, with the Commission noting that he had left Ayodhya a day before. Then Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao also went unscathed as the Commission took the view that he could not have acted unless the Governor had recommended central intervention as provided for in the Constitution.
Justice M S Liberhan, former chief justice of the Madras High Court, in a voluminous report said to run into over 900 pages has noted that Advani and Joshi were personally present when the disputed structure in Ayodhya was brought down on Dec 6, 1992 and did nothing to stop it.
Kalyan Singh has come in for the severest indictment from the Commission for total inaction in the face of the demolition although he was said to be aware of the Parivar plans. Advani said he was shocked by the published report while Joshi said, "...Such leakages are made with a political motive." As the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned repeatedly with furious BJP MPs creating an uproar, the Home Minister intervened to say that the Liberhan report would be tabled in the ongoing Winter Session. The Commission submitted its report on June 30, and "we are required to table it, along with the action taken report, within six months," Chidambaram said in the Lok Sabha. "It is unfortunate that a newspaper has published what purports to be the contents of the report," the Home Minister said. "There's only one copy of the report, in safe custody, and I can assure the House that no one from the Ministry of Home Affairs has spoken to anyone."
