New Delhi: Amid acrimony in the
Lok Sabha, Home Minister P. Chidambaram held the Sangh Parivar
responsible for the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 and
dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj's
contention that there was no conspiracy behind the incident.
In his reply to
the debate on the Liberhan Commission report, Chidambaram said every
single promise by the BJP leaders and then Uttar Pradesh chief
minister Kalyan Singh to protect the mosque was broken.
Amid continuous
slogan-shouting by the BJP-led opposition, Chidambaram admitted that
the P.V. Narasimha Rao government had erred but said that it was an
error of political judgement as the former prime minister believed
the "false" promises of the BJP leaders. "The Congress party paid
the price of its political judgement," he said.
Extensively
quoting from the report, the minister said there was evidence that
the Babri mosque was pulled down as a pre-planned act. "The plan was
conceived by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It controlled every
aspect of the Ayodhya movement."
"The promise to
protect Babri masjid was one big lie. The then Uttar Pradesh chief
minister lied to the centre and the Supreme Court," he said.
The minister said
that kar sevaks carried hammers and iron rods and the mosque was
demolished by pulling it down from inside and not from the top.
He said that the
BJP had not expressed regret over the demolition and its policies
continue to be "divisive".
While the minister
was replying, Samajwadi Party members raised slogans that both
Congress and BJP were responsible for the demolition.
Chidambaram, who
spoke for almost an hour amid unabated slogan shouting, restrained
his colleagues from reacting after a paper ball was lobbed towards
him. As slogans like "Down, down Chidambaram" and "Jai, Jai Atal"
rent the air, the minister did not give up, and was repeatedly
cheered by his party colleagues through thumping of tables.
The minister, who
was barely audible due to slogan shouting, said the idea of
"inclusive India" represented by the Congress and other secular
parties had been preferred by the people of India in 2004 and 2009
elections and "divisive politics" of the BJP had been rejected.
The uproar in the
house started before the minister's reply after P.C. Chacko, who was
presiding over the proceedings, asked the members, who had not got
the opportunity to speak, to lay their speeches on the table of the
house.
The opposition
members protested at this. The house had earlier witnessed noisy
scenes and two adjournments over derogatory remarks by Congress MP
Beni Prasad Verma against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders
indicted in the report.
Congress leader
and Minority Affairs minister Salman Khurshid later said that the
Home Ministry will take the necessary action on the Liberhan report.
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