Breaking her silence on the Liberhan Commission report, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati on Wednesday panned the Central Government for glossing over the forces involved in the Babri Masjid demolition in the Action Taken Report (ATR), which was tabled in Parliament along with the main report on Tuesday.
Ms. Mayawati accused the then Congress Government at the Centre and the then Bharatiya Janata Party Government in the State for conniving in the demolition of the mosque, and said the two parties cannot escape responsibility for the incident.
On the possibility of some parties, mainly the BJP and Samajwadi Party, capitalising on the Liberhan report issue, the Chief Minister emphasised that dharnas and demonstrations would not be allowed in the State, not even on December 6 (the 17th anniversary of Babri mosque demolition).
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The Minister promised strict action against those trying to disturb communal peace. The Principal Secretary (Home) and the DG Police have been directed to visit all the communally sensitive districts and review the situation.
“Had it not been for the connivance of the Congress and BJP it would have been impossible to bring down the disputed structure at Ayodhya, which in its wake unleashed a wave of death and destruction and besmirched the secular character of India,” the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said at a Press conference here.
She added that the after-shocks of the unfortunate incident were still being felt. Ms. Mayawati said the leakage of the Liberhan panel report showed that both the BJP and the Congress were trying to create divisions and spread communal hatred.
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The Chief Minister also assailed the Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh for trying to get political mileage from the incident, vis-à-vis, the Muslims. Ms. Mayawati charged the Congress, BJP and the SP with politicising the Ayodhya issue as they never want the issue to be resolved.
In 1986, the disputed site was unlocked when the Congress was in power at the Centre and in U.P. And, in 1989 the "shilanyas" of the temple was performed at the behest of the then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) and the then Union Home Minister (Buta Singh), Ms. Mayawati said. Then, Mr. Mulayam Singh stepped in to arouse passions with his inflammatory speeches like “parinda par nahin maar sakta,”(no bird can fly in) the Chief Minister charged.
On the 17 years taken by the Liberhan panel to submit its report, Ms. Mayawati saw in the delay an attempt to absolve the Congress of its role in the demolition. She questioned the logic of constituting the one-man inquiry commission when ( Babri ) cases are pending in the law courts. The Chief Minister added that the Bahujan Samaj Party Government would respect the court verdict.
She refused to comment on former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee being indirectly indicted by Liberhan. Ms. Mayawati said she would comment after studying the report three or four times more and watching closely the ongoing "political drama".