New Delhi, November 24 2009: The top BJP leadership including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi have been severely indicted and called "pseudo-moderates" by a Commission that probed the demolition of Babri Masjid 17 years ago.

The Justice MS Liberhan Commission of Inquiry also attacked former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh saying, the destruction of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992 was carried out in a "duplicitous and under-handed manner" which was not worthy of a democratically-elected Government.

The four-volume report running into over 1000 pages and Government's Action Taken Report (ATR) on it were tabled in Parliament by Home Minister P Chidambaram, a day after a leak of the report in a national daily.

The Commission, which was set up 10 days after the incident and got 48 extensions, recommended a law providing for exemplary punishment for misuse of religion for acquiring political power and disqualification of political parties and candidates who have religious agenda.

In its ATR, Government promised that a Bill to check communal violence was being contemplated which will include provisions on some these recommendations while the Election Commission would also be moved to look into them.

The ATR spoke of no punitive action against anyone and merely took note of the cases filed against BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders in various special courts in Lucknow and Rae Bareli.

Unsparring in its attack on top BJP leadership, the Commission listed Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi in a list of 68 leaders of the Parivar and officials as responsible "for leading the country to the brink of communal discord" in their individual culpability.

It said there was no manner of doubt admissible in the culpability and responsibility of the Chief Minister (Kalyan Singh), his Ministers and Sangh Parivar leaders like Ashok Singhal, KS Sudarshan and Vinay Katiyaar, who formed a "complete cartel" supported by the icons of the movement like Advani, Joshi and Vajpayee.

Kalyan Singh and his trusted lieutenants spared no lie before the highest authorities of the land to befool them and to tie their hands with the niceties of constitutional democracies.

The Commission analysed the standards of culpability and divided various persons and organisations into three groups.

The first group represented those who bore the primary and greatest responsibility for the demolition as they had the means to prevent the assault.

The second group consisted of those who portrayed the benign face of Ayodhya campaign and gave false reassurances to the courts, the people and the nation as a whole.

"Those who have been put in the second category in these conclusions are referred to as 'pseudo-moderates' in contrast to the radicals forming part of the first group," the report said.

All these three groups, the Commission said had "managed to reduce one of the greatest nations and one of the oldest civilisations to the State of stark intolerance and barbarianism-all for petty political gains".

As the inner core of the Parivar, the top leadership of the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and BJP bear the primary responsibility.

"On the one hand, leaders like AB Vajpayee, Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani, who are the undeniable public face and leaders of the BJP and thus of the Parivar, constantly protested their innocence and denounced the events of December 1992 .

"On the other hand, it stands established beyond doubt that the events of the day were neither spontaneous, nor unplanned nor unforeseen overflowing of the people's emotions, nor the result of a foreign conspiracy as some overly imaginative people have tried to suggest," it said.

Maintaining that it was unable to hold the "pseudo-moderates innocent of any wrongdoings", the Commission said "it cannot be assumed even for a moment that LK Advani, AB Vajpayee or MM Joshi did not know the designs of the Sangh Parivar.

"Even though these leaders were deemed and used by the Parivar as the publicly acceptable faces and the articulated voices of the Parivar and thus used to reassure the cautious masses, they were party to the decisions which had been taken".

Observing that the pseudo-moderates could not have defied the mandate of the Sangh Parivar, specially the RSS without having bowed out of public life as leaders of BJP, the Commission said this BJP leadership was "as much a tool in the hands of the RSS as any other organisation or entity and these leaders stood to inherit the political successes engineered by the RSS" .

Referring to Govindacharya's famous mukhota or a mask remark, the Commission said it may be "more appropriately applied to the BJP leadership at the time collectively." "Without leaders like Joshi, Advani and Vajpayee, the RSS might have been able to achieve de facto clout, but would not have been able to legitimise its hold on the Indian system by translating that clout into political success," the report said.

Comment