The Hindu : Rao Govt.'s decision to ban VHP was correct: Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 14, 2003

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Rao Govt.'s decision to ban VHP was correct: Centre

NEW DELHI JUNE 13. In a surprise action, the Centre today described as "correct" the then Narasimha Rao Government's decision to ban the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on the basis of the Justice Bahri Commission's findings that the organisation's leaders had made "provocative speeches" leading to the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

"It was a correct measure of the then Central Government as it was based on provocative statements made by Ashok Singhal, Sadhvi Ritambara and Acharya Dharmendra Dev," Centre's counsel, Lala Ram Gupta, told the Liberhan Commission probing the events leading to the demolition of the disputed structure.

Ruling out any conspiracy in the demolition, he said at the most it may have been a "plan' devised by any person. "If at all there was any conspiracy, it would have been limited to 605 Shiv Sainiks, who allegedly had plans to hold kar seva in the garbh griha (sanctum sanctorum)," he said.

However, the Shiv Sena leader, Moreshwar Save, had ruled out any role of the party or its leaders in the demolition, Mr. Gupta pointed out.

Though there were intelligence reports that this group had a meeting on November 28, 1992, at Faizabad and decided to do the kar seva, there was no evidence to corroborate this, Mr. Gupta added.

Denying that security arrangements around the disputed structure were not "proper", he, however, admitted that these proved to be insufficient as they failed to stop the mob frenzy. — PTI

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