The Liberhan Commission’s report could form the basis of supplementary charge sheets if further investigation by the police finds any new charge against those indicted for the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
“Supplementary charge sheets can be filed and will be filed if the investigating agencies find any fresh evidence against those accused in the report,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here on Tuesday.
He said that as per the procedure, the investigating agencies — the CBI in this case — would study the report and investigate the cases further if any fresh detail was found. This could be the basis of the supplementary charge sheet and not the Commission’s report.
On the “indictment” of the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr. Singhvi said that if he could defend himself in a court, any procedural lapse could also be challenged, but unless proven otherwise, the report would stand.
Pointing out that the report showed the “true character, identity and thinking” of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. Singhvi said it was much more important, as it reflected the “brutish and nasty” policy of divide and rule as pursued by the British rulers.
He said that if there was a law to curb communal violence — as the Centre intends to bring one now — such divisive political parties could have been banned then.
On the role of the Narasimha Rao government in protecting the mosque, Mr. Singhvi accused the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, of “misleading” the Centre and even the Supreme Court by promising that no harm would be done to the structure.
Accusing the Narasimha Rao government of failing to discharge its duty, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the National Integration Council meeting held in November 1992 had adopted a unanimous resolution empowering the government to take whatever steps necessary to save the mosque, but it had failed to do so.
Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told journalists that the report only confirmed that the demolition was a conspiracy. “This constitutes the most serious assault on the foundation of a secular democracy.” The Congress assaulted democracy with Emergency in 1975 and the BJP on secularism in 1992. Justice must be done, he said.
Mr. Yechury said the Congress had apologised for imposing the Emergency and for the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. The least the BJP could do was to show remorse. “Yet, when the report was tabled in Parliament, there were cries of ‘Jai Shree Ram’.”
On Mr. Vajpayee’s indictment, Mr. Yechury said he (Mr. Vajpayee) had himself said that he was asked by the BJP not to go to Ayodhya and instead stay in Lucknow.
