The discussion on Wednesday on the Liberhan Commission report generated heat in the Rajya Sabha, with the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) squarely blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party for the demolition of the structure in Ayodhya and the main Opposition party “rejecting” the report and dubbing its contents just as “dubious” as its “leakage” to the media.
The CPI(M), the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and BJP’s ally Janata Dal (United) urged the government to expedite the process of law to bring the guilty to book. All non-Congress parties disagreed with the observations in the report on the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and maintained that the Union government should have taken steps to prevent the demolition.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley (BJP) suggested that the ideal settlement of the Ayodhya dispute could be through negotiations. He said an inclusive society must necessarily include the aspirations of a minority but it could not be based on “reverse discrimination against the majority.”
Mr. Jaitley described the report as a “tragedy of errors” that lacked credibility. He termed it an exercise in futility. “It has been called a dud report and the ATR [Action Taken Report] itself indicates it is an un-implementable report,” he said in his hour-long speech.
Dig at Justice Liberhan
The Opposition leader questioned why the report took 17 years to prepare. Taking a dig at Justice Liberhan, he said Mr. Liberhan used the opportunity to perpetuate “self-employment” with an eye on future employment. The report was a “fraud on fact-finding process and full of howlers.” There were several inconsistencies in the report.
