By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Justice demands that L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee cannot be put in the same dock. I am not advocating for him but my conscience feels so,” said Syed Shahabuddin, ex-MP and convenor of Babri Masjid Coordination Committee, in a video interview to TwoCircles.net while reacting on Liberhan Commission report on Babri demolition. Exenoration of Narasimha Rao, he said, is the biggest blunder of the commission.
Reacting on the Liberhan Commission report which indicted top leaders of Sangh Parivar including RSS, BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal, former diplomat Syed Shahabuddin who has been attached with the Babri Masjid movement for decades said: “Atal Bihari Vajpayee was president of BJP. He no doubt knew what was going to happen. But he did not take part in the Ayodhya yatra. He did not go to Ayodhya. He returned from Lucknow, perhaps to keep himself clean. Justice demands that Advani and Vajpayee cannot be put in the same dock. I am not advocating for him. My conscience feels so.”
The Commission whose report was tabled today in the Parliament has indicted Vajpayee, Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi with other leaders of Sangh Parivar.
The role of BJP, VHP or Sangh Parivar in the demolition of Babri Masjid was known to all. If the Liberhan Commission has indicted leaders of these parties, it is correct, he further said.
Asked why Narasimha Rao has been exonerated and Vajpayee indicted, Syed Shahabuddin said: “Only history will answer this question. But I would like to ask why the report was submitted now when it was completed four years ago. Why did Liberhan do so? I would not comment on it. But of course I would say that some time back it was said Advani was being exonerated and Rao indicted. Now today the case is different. It means surely something happened behind the scene.”
On exoneration of Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister, Syed Shahabuddin said this is the biggest blunder of the Liberhan Commission.
“The biggest blunder that the Liberhan Commission has done is that it has given a clean chit to Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister of India. In my view he is culprit No 1. in this case. The very second day of the demolition I wrote to Rao and told him he was more responsible than the Sangh Parivar for the demolition. Because he was prime minister, he had power and responsibility to protect the mosque, but he did not execute his responsibility. I say he was connived with the Sangh Parivar. We gave him numerous memorandums and proposals. We urged him to take the mosque in government’s control and declare it national monument of historic importance so that it is his government’s responsibility to protect it. But he didn’t. Rao was super villain in this case.”