New Delhi, Dec 01: The debate on the report of the Liberhan Commission scheduled for Tuesday in the Lok Sabha has been put off till next week. The official reason: some MPs have objected to non-availability of a Hindi translation of the voluminous report.
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday met Speaker Meira Kumar to register his protest that lack of a Hindi translation meant that he and many others would not be able to take part in this important debate on the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) was annoyed and felt there was a concerted move not to allow the debate as there were many people who did not want the discussion. “It suits them,” he said and was sceptical of the discussion taking place even next week, although, apparently, the government has promised to make the Hindi translation available by Thursday.
Mr. Dasgupta said many skeletons would tumble out of the cupboard during the debate, and, hence, the effort to postpone it.
It seems that after Mr. Yadav took up the issue with the Speaker, who consulted Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Bharatiya Janata Party deputy leader Sushma Swaraj. Mr. Bansal told The Hindu that the government tried to accommodate the views of other parties and informed the Speaker that a translation of the Liberhan report could be made available by Thursday. He denied that the government wanted a postponement.
Anyhow, with both the government and the main opposition agreeable to postponing the debate, the Lok Sabha Bulletin Part II made the decision official by evening.
Some MPs pointed out that a discussion certainly did not suit the BJP as the Liberhan report put its top leaders in the dock. As for the Congress, a discussion could have brought out the attitude of benign neglect on the part of the Centre headed by P.V. Narasimha Rao.
One MP said the Rajiv Gandhi government felicitating the opening of the locks of the Babri Masjid to allow prayers and the subsequent ‘shilanyas’ (laying of a foundation stone) for a Ram temple would have also attracted adverse comments during the discussion.
–Agencies