Updated: October 1, 2020 7:12:04 am
Babri’s verdict comes nearly 28 years after the structure was razed by a mob in Uttar Pradesh, sparking communal unrest. Of the 49 accused, 32 are alive today
“I found out it was a civil conspiracy, I still believe in it. From all the evidence before me, it was clear that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was meticulously planned … I remember Uma Bharti taking categorical responsibility for it. It was not an invisible force that demolished the mosque, human beings did, “Judge Manmohan Singh Liberhan told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
The Liberhan Commission, created in 1992 to investigate the Babri Masjid demolition, In his report presented in 2009, he had pointed to the involvement of RSS and BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, and the collusion of the then government of Uttar Pradesh. “They actively or passively supported the demolition,” he said.
The Commission said that the mobilization of the “kar sevaks” was not “spontaneous or voluntary” but “orchestrated and planned.” The report named more than 60 people, including BJP Advani leaders Joshi, Bharti and AB Vajpayee, RSS and VHP leaders, bureaucrats, as “guilty” of “bringing the country to the brink of communal discord.”
“My findings were correct, correct, honest, and free of fear or any other bias,” said Judge Liberhan. “For posterity, it is a report that will provide an honest account of what happened and how. It will be part of history, ”he said.
However, he declined to comment on the court decision. “I will not comment on the judge or the court or the CBI investigation. I think everyone does their job honestly. The court has the right to disagree, there can be no disputes about its power or operation, “she said.
Judge Liberhan at his home in Chandigarh. (Express photo)
“All of them, Advani, Vajpayee, appeared before me, and what I found, I presented in my report, but they cannot be witnesses against them… Some of them took responsibility for the demolition. Uma Bharti categorically claimed responsibility … now if the judge says she is not responsible, what can I do? … From the evidence presented before me and the witness accounts, not only I, anyone could have reasonably concluded that it was a premeditated action, “he said.
His mission, he said, was to find out who demolished the mosque, what were the circumstances that led to it, as well as the fact of the demolition itself. “Some may have had a pious intention, but for politicians, it was one of the most important means of generating votes in their favor,” he said, adding that it was a watershed moment for the BJP.
The 82-year-old former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh and Madras said the demolition could have been prevented with administrative planning and action. He had made this point in his report, saying that no preventive measures were taken to prevent demolition or prevent the spread of hatred between communities.
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In this photo from 2005, BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharti in Raebareli. (PTI photo)
Liberhan’s report said that “cadres from the RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP, BJP and Shiv Sena along with their leaders” were present at the scene at the time of the demolition. “They actively or passively supported the demolition. Also present were the other protagonists of the temple building movement, including preachers, sadhus and sants, administrative and police officers, media and kar sevaks. In the process, all the acts were directed or to acquire political power and thus achieve the politically desirable results, ”he said.
The report said that the then government of Kalyan Singh in UP had “intentionally” allowed “the protagonists of the movement and the kar sevaks to lead the administration and govern Ayodhya and Faizabad.” “Kalyan Singh… repeatedly refused to use the services of the paramilitary forces until after the demolition was completed. He had full knowledge of the events and their implications, as they unfolded, and his reluctance to take any substantive action, so it is inexplicable, “he said.
The Commission said this is not a case in which the government is “powerless in the face of the fury of the mobs.” “This was, on the contrary, an unfortunate and shameful case in which the prime minister and his associates, inside and outside the government, inside and outside his party, inside and outside the Parivar, actively obstructed and obstructed the small outbreaks of sanity and sense that it could have prevented the demolition of the disputed structures or the riots that followed, ”he said.
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BJP leader Uma Bharti celebrates the demolition of Babri Masjid with his party colleague MM Joshi in Ayodhya (Express Photo by Kedar Jain)
On the role of the bureaucracy, the Commission said: “It is too obvious that the administration could not, and did not put, any restrictions on the kar sevaks or kar seva, nor did it regulate them, for fear of reprisals from the government. government.”
The report said that Advani’s Ram Janaki Rath Yatra in the run-up to December 1992 was held to “mobilize people to build the temple on the disputed site.” “It was the leadership of the BJP, a national political party, who stepped forward to mobilize the people on the Ayodhya temple issue, along with Mathura and Kashi. He challenged constitutional secularism by calling it pseudo-secularism, ”he said.
On December 6, 1992, the Commission observed that Advani, Joshi, and others present at the site made “weak requests” to the Kar Sevaks to come down from the disputed site. “One could have reasonably perceived that demolition of the disputed structure was not possible from the top of the domes. The kar sevaks were not asked not to enter the garba griha or to demolish from inside the domes. This selective act of the leaders themselves speaks of the hidden intentions of each and every one of the beings to achieve the demolition of the disputed structure, ”he said.
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BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi met shortly after Kar Sewak started the demolition of Babri Masjid (Express photo by RK Sharma)
The Commission also criticized the then central government, headed by Congressional Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. “The central government had been daydreaming that the state government would go against its electoral manifesto,” he said.
The Commission said that Champat Rai, now general secretary of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust which is in charge of the construction of the temple in Ayodhya, had “declared that the guerrilla (strategy) would be adopted on December 6, 1992. This statement was published and that no leader of the movement or political party contradicts or contradicts ”.
“The prognosis of the evidence leads to the conclusion that the mobilization of the kar sevaks was neither spontaneous nor voluntary. It was orchestrated and planned, ”he said.
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