By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress said Thursday that a court verdict or comprehensive settlement accepted by all stake-holders were the only possible solutions to the Ayodhya dispute.
Answering a questions on the promise of the then prime minister Narasimha Rao’s government to rebuild the Babri Mosque following its demolition Dec 6, 1992, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the party “did not want the remedy to be worse than the disease”.
A court verdict or a comprehensive settlement was acceptable to the party as solutions to the dispute, he said.
Answering questions on the purported clean chit given to the Rao government in the Liberhan Commission report, he said the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh had misled even the Supreme Court on the issue.
“For the first time in the history of independent India, a chief minister faced punishment for contempt of court,” he said.
He said that allegations against the Narasimha Rao government were being levelled mainly by those who were present at the site when the mosque was razed.
Answering queries about some Congress leaders having accused Narasimha Rao of not having done enough to prevent demolition, he said that all those remarks were in the public domain.
However, he refused to say if Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had then written a letter to Rao, accusing him of being hand-in-glove with those behind the mosque’s demolition.
The Samajwadi Party said Thursday that it was in possession of Dikshit’s letter.
On Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, made in 2007, that a person from his family would have prevented demolition of the mosque, Singhvi said these reflected his anguish and pain at the demolition.
He also termed as “laughable” Samajwadi Party’s remarks that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had paid “guru-dakshina (disciple’s offering to the teacher)” to his mentor Narasimha Rao as the Liberhan Commission had given Rao “a clean chit” while fixing responsibility for Babri Mosque demolition.