New Delhi, December 08: The BJP broke every single promise made before the Supreme Court and to the Government of India on Kar Seva at the disputed Babri mosque site while the then Central government committed a grave political mistake by trusting the party, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said in his reply to the Libarhan panel debate even as Opposition engaged in sloganeering.
He regretted that the PV Narsimha Rao led Congress government committed the error of trusting the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh. “Kalyan Singh lied to the Govt and Supreme Court that the structure will be protected,” he said.
Alleging that Opposition leader LK Advani had all the information about what the Kar Sevaks were doing on December 6, 1992, Chidambaram claimed that members of Sangh Parivar went to Ayodhya with an intention of destroying the Babri structure.
Opposition MPs indulged in slogan shouting even as Union Home Minister P Chidambaram rose to reply to the debate on Liberhan Commission report.
NDA allies shouted ‘Shame, shame’ and ‘Jai Jai, Atal ji’ on top of their voices but a seemingly unperturbed Chidambaram continued with his reply. This happened as the House resumed discussion after it was adjourned once before.
Chidambaram said the only issue before the House was that who demolished the structure.
The NDA members were agitated when Beni Prasad Verma used a derogatory word against Vajpayee during a debate on the Liberhan Commission report.
The NDA members demanded an apology from Verma for the comments.
Speaker Meera Kumar expunged the word and Home Minister P Chidambaram expressed apology on behalf of Verma but the agitating NDA members were not pacified, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for 20 minutes till 5 PM.
When the House re-assembled, the ruckus continued with BJP members insisting on apology by Verma.
At the behest of the Speaker, Verma said, “The House is above all. If I have hurt them (BJP members), I regret.”
This did not satisfy the BJP members who continued to demand his apology, drawing the attention of the Speaker to the demeaning word.
BJP President Rajnath Singh said expression of “regret” by Verma was not sufficient and he should apologise failing which his membership should be terminated as he had “insulted” the House.
The Speaker said everyone had lot of respect for Vajpayee and any inappropriate comment against him was “sad”.
Earlier the House was adjourned for a few minutes as a Shiv Sena member said there was nothing shameful about the demolition of a “mud structure” and his party was proud of it.
Participating in the resumed discussion on the Liberhan Commission report, Ananth Geete asserted that after the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya his party supremo Bal Thackeray was the only leader who said if Shiv Sainiks were involved in the act, he was proud of it.
This led UPA and other members to shout “shame, shame”.
Hitting back, Geete said, “What shame? Kis baat ke liye shame (shame for what)? There is nothing wrong in demolishing a structure built by Babar, an outsider who invaded India.”
He accused Muslim members of the House, cutting across party lines, of protesting the mention by BJP President Rajnath Singh in his speech yesterday of Deoband cleric Ali Mian’s alleged stand on the disputed structure.
“But they are secular while we are communal. What message are we giving from this House?” Geete asked.
“Nobody is crying for the 3.5 lakh Hindus who have been thrown out of the Kashmir valley…..In 1984 anti-Sikh riots 3,000 Sikhs were killed in cold-blood, but people were mourning the fall of a disputed structure,” Geete said.
Stating that the Liberhan report had several anomalies, Earlier during the debate on the report, CPI-M member Basudeb Acharia described the demolition of Babri Masjid as a “calculated, pre-planned action on part of Sangh Parivar”.
Acharia said it was a local dispute which was brought to the national level for political gains by BJP.
—Agencies