New Delhi, November 23: The government should have published the Justice Liberhan Commission report probing the Babri issue the day it was submitted, BJP leader L K Advani said at the Parliament on Monday.
According to an Indian Express report, the Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan Commission of Inquiry has indicted former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of Opposition L K Advani and former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi among others, for the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and called them ‘pseudo-moderates’.
“I am shocked by the use of the word ‘indictment’,” Advani said. “I would like to know who leaked this,” he added speaking the Parliament which was rocked by the leakage of the report to media before it was presented in the house.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, however, denied it was leaked to media by the government.
After 17 years and 48 extensions, the commission submitted its report on June 30 this year.
“The government should not have wasted even a day for making the report public after it was submitted,” he said.
Stating that he was very distressed by the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Advani said, “That was the sadest day of my life.”
Citing the evidence it gathered, which includes witness statements and official records, one of the key conclusions of the Commission is said to be that the entire build-up to the demolition was meticulously planned. And there was nothing to show that these leaders were either unaware of what was going on or innocent of any wrongdoing.
The Liberhan Commission was set up 10 days after December 6, 1992, the day Babri Masjid was demolished. Communal riots had ravaged several parts of the country immediately after the incident.
The one-man Commission probed the “sequence of events leading, and all facts and circumstances relating, to the occurrences at Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex on December 6, 1992” — the day the Babri Masjid was brought down by kar sevaks.
Speaking at the Parliament on Monday, home minister P Chidambaram said that there is just one copy of the report with the home ministry and no one from the ministry has spoken to the media about it.
“We will table the report in this session,” he added.
—Agencies