Report Blaming Hindu Nationalist Leaders for Role in 1992 Destruction of Mosque Rocks Indian ParliamentIn India, a leaked government report which has blamed senior Hindu nationalist leaders for the demolition of an ancient mosque 17 years ago, has rocked parliament, and angered the opposition.
Both houses of parliament erupted in furor Monday after a newspaper published excerpts of a government report on the demolition of a 16th century mosque in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya in 1992 by a Hindu mob.
The report by the Liberhan commission, which investigated the demolition, has not yet been made public.
The Indian Express newspaper says that the commission has concluded that the build-up to the events that culminated in the Hindu mob tearing down the mosque was "meticulously planned."
The newspaper says the Liberhan commission has slammed top leaders of the opposition Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for their role in the destruction of the mosque, which sparked some of the worst Hindu-Muslim clashes seen in the country. Those named include former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and current leader of the opposition, Lal Krishna Advani.
Angry BJP lawmakers shouted in parliament that they will not tolerate the insult to their leaders, and accused the government of deliberately leaking the report.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram did not say whether the newspaper report was authentic, but defended the government.
"This report, there is only one copy, it is in my custody, no one has spoken to any journalist," he said.
Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani said if the leaked report is correct, its conclusions are false and ridiculous. He denied that there said there was any conspiracy or planning behind the destruction of the mosque.
BJP leaders have always maintained that the demolition was spontaneous, led by Hindus campaigning to build a temple on the site of the mosque, which they believe is the birthplace of their God Rama.The Liberhan Commission completed the report in July after nearly 17 years. The government had said it will place it in parliament during the current session.
BJP leaders alleged the government leaked the report to deflect attention from issues such as rising food prices for which it is under fire.
The issue of the demolition of the mosque -- for which the BJP has often faced severe criticism -- has surfaced at a time when it has been weakened by a series of electoral setbacks and infighting in the party.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Report-Blaming-Hindu-Nationalist-Leaders-for-Role-in-1992-Destruction-of-Mosque-Rocks-Indian-Parliament--71536102.htmlLeak of Sensitive Report Spurs Uproar in India NEW DELHI — The leaking of a long-awaited confidential report on one of the most divisive incidents in modern Indian history raised a furor in India’s Parliament Monday, with lawmakers demanding to know how the highly sensitive report made its way to a newspaper and cable news channel.
The report, 17 years in the making, is an investigation of the destruction of the Babri Masjid, a mosque in the town of Ayodyha destroyed by radical Hindu activists who claimed the site as the birthplace of the god Ram. They claimed Muslim rulers had destroyed the temple and replaced it with a mosque in the 16th century. After years of heated protest over the site, a Hindu mob stormed the mosque in 1992, reducing it to rubble. The destruction of the mosque set off violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims on a scale scarcely seen since partition that reverberated for years.
According to the Indian Express newspaper and NDTV, a private cable news channel, the report portrays the destruction of the mosque not as a spontaneous act by grassroots activists but as something planned and carried out with the implicit approval of senior members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., which was at the time a relatively small, right wing party.
But the destruction of the mosque galvanized many conservative Hindus, who helped propel the party into national prominence, and eventually into a governing coalition that defeated the long-ruling Congress Party.
The Liberhan Commission, named for the judge who oversaw the inquiry, was set up shortly after the destruction of the mosque to investigate the incident. In June 2009, nearly 17 years later, it handed its report to the government. But the report had been kept secret.
Senior members of the BJP accused the government of leaking the report for political gain. P. Chidambaram, India’s Home Minister, denied the accusation and said the report had been very closely held.
L. K. Advani, the octogenarian standard bearer of the BJP whose political career took off when he took up the cause of the Ram temple, denied that the destruction was planned.
“It is completely untrue that it was a meticulously planned conspiracy,” he said. “There was no plan, no conspiracy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/world/asia/24mosque.html
Topic: Leak of Mosque Destruction Inquiry Spurs Uproar in India (Read 1931 times)